Robert Thompson
Home > Directory > Robert ThompsonRobert (Mouseman) Thompson (7 May 1876 - 8 December 1955) was a British furniture maker. He lived in Kilburn, North Yorkshire, where he set up a business manufacturing oak furniture, which featured a carved mouse on almost every piece. It is claimed that the mouse trademark came about accidentally in 1919 following a conversation about 'being as poor as a church mouse', which took place between Thompson and one of his colleagues during the carving of a cornice for a screen. This chance remark led to him carving a mouse and this remained part of his work from this point onwards.
He was part of the 1920s revival of craftsmanship, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris, John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle. More specific to furniture making in this genre and era include Stanley Webb Davies of Windermere.
The workshop, now being run by his descendants, includes a showroom and visitors' centre, and is located beside the Parish Church, which contains 'Mouseman' pews, fittings and other furniture. The company is now known as 'Robert Thompson's Craftsmen Ltd - The Mouseman of Kilburn.'
Fr Paul Nevill, a former Headmaster of Ampleforth College, asked Thompson to make the Ampleforth's Abbey furniture; they liked it so much that Ampleforth kept asking Thompson for more works, including the library and most of the main building. Fr Gabriel Everitt, current Headmaster, has recently asked the Mouseman company for more work. Most of Ampleforth College houses are decorated with Robert Thompson's furniture.
Other who continue in his style working in Yorkshire oak, have adopted similar identifying marks and nicknames, for example Thomas 'Gnomeman' Whittaker (1910-1991), Colin 'Beaverman' Almack, Wilf 'Squirrelman' Hutchinson, 'eagleman', 'beaverman' et al.. (Source: Wikipedia - see link below for complete article)
Links
If you have a relevant information or links relating to Robert Thompson then please contact me and I will consider adding it.
Interested in finding out about designers and makers? Here are some randomly selected from my database:
| |
For additional information on Robert Thompson Furniture then feel free to do a Google Search.
Examples
Due to reasons of copyright it is difficult to provide specific photographic examples of Robert Thompson furniture; however if you own examples where you are able & wish (for copyright and personal reasons) to provide Robert Thompson photos, then you are welcome to contact me. Before taking time to create the photos, please contact me first though.
Disclaimer
The purpose of this directory is to provide general information about designers and makers of Arts and Crafts furniture 1860-1939. The information on this page has been gathered from various sources available in both books and on the internet and at the time of publication was believed to be correct. The site owner take no responsibility for it's accuracy and if you are using this for any purpose then you are recommended to check it with an additional source first. If you have additional information that you think would be useful then do let me know - but please contact me first before you spend time as I will not always be able to put your information on the directory.
The site owner bears no responsibly for 3rd party links, they are provided in good faith but if you consider them inappropriate please click here
The site owner reserves the right to withdraw any services in whole or part at any time without reason.
Nothing on this site constitutes a formal quote, or an offer of work. All work subject to availability, accepted quote and signed contract. All sample prices ex VAT.