Mouseman adzed oak dining table and six chairs owned by Elsie Cartwright (née Thompson), estimate £6000-8000 at Hawleys.
The nine pieces, offered in three lots, are being sold by the granddaughter of Elsie Thompson and will be offered at Hawleys in Beverley, East Yorkshire on May 18-19.
A dining table and six chairs were thought to have been given as wedding gift on Elsie’s marriage to Percy Cartwright in 1924. Many meetings were held around this table over the years at the family home ‘Snapes’ in Kilburn.
The chairs are an early model with solid panel backs and legs that were turned on a lathe and then worked on a bench to form their distinctive octagonal shape. The classic lattice back chairs were not made until the end of the 1930s. The suite has a guide of £6000-8000.
Also from ‘Snapes’, is a rare fireside kerb (estimate £500-600) and a particularly fine kidney shaped table (estimate which took pride of place in the front room (estimate £2000-3000). Made using a large single piece of burr oak measuring 86cm x 56 cm, it made also have been a wedding gift.
All pieces in the collection are carved with the mouse signature that was a relatively new additional to Thomson furniture at the time: Thompson hit upon his trademark in the early 1920s while working at Ampleforth College. It was not registered until the 1930s.
