A large collection of period Mouseman oak furniture will be sold by auction precisely seventy-five years after it was commissioned for Leeds Girls’ High School’s Senior Library in 1933. The sale of this Arts and Crafts furniture will no doubt be of interest to many of the old girls from the school and families who have had a connection with it over the past seventy five years.
Weathered and patinated by generations of school girls, these solid oak tables, chairs, bookcases and other library furniture have the wonderful character and rich patina which only comes with age. They will be sold in Tennants Summer Sale on 17th-19th July 2008.
The Mouseman library was originally made possible by an anonymous gift of £6,000 to the then acting headmistress, Dr Lucy A Lowe, and is recorded in an inscription on the library’s panelling “This library was the gift of a friend and was opened in May MCMXXXIV” (1934). The library’s architect was Fred Broadbent who worked closely with Robert Thompson to produce a homogenous design.
No detail was over-looked, as the auction will reveal, in the superb assortment of pieces including fitted bookcases, free-standing bookcases, door surrounds, panelling, pen trays, sixteen tables, 87 chairs, an alcove seat, a book trolley, radiator covers, cupboards, inkwells, book troughs, magazine cabinets and even library steps.
The fashionable style of the 1930’s tended to be an elitist one of sleekness, sharp angles and bright colours – but for Leeds Girls’ High School this opulence would never do – instead they chose the solid, practical and timeless style of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson’s oak, handmade in a tradition centuries old, plain pegged and adzed. The library was officially opened on 10th May 1934 with an opening ceremony at the Parish Church of Leeds followed by maypole dancing by the school girls on the lawns.
Old pupils of the school will, of course, be welcomed at the sale in the hope that they will be able to acquire a piece of their own history. Afterwards we anticipate that the school’s library furniture will face a more varied future – the tables being used for meals not maths books, computers not satchels, ice buckets not inkwells. However, many of these solid tables and chairs will go into kitchens around the country and for many years to come will, no doubt, be the place where generations of future children will delight in finding the carved mouse and where they will sit to do their homework.
Why is ‘Mouseman’ so popular? There is satisfaction in knowing that it comes from a picturesque village nestled beneath the “White Horse” in the Hambleton Hills of North Yorkshire, where craftsmen lead an uncomplicated life in the true Arts and Crafts tradition. Diane Sinnott, Head of Decorative Arts for Tennants Auctioneers says “It is such pleasing furniture, not least because of the little mouse carved into every piece. Strong yet simple in design, it is also practical in size for most people’s homes. Add that to the fact that it is internationally collectable and it is no wonder it is so desirable.”
There are numerous rarities within the collection including thirteen of the 87 chairs, each carved with not one but two mice. Each mouse takes around forty-five minutes to carve, so two mice represent an expensive investment of one and a half hours of a craftsman’s time and effort. One of those thirteen chairs was discovered during the cataloguing stage to be in a poor state of repair – and poignantly this has now been restored by Ian Cartwright, Director of the Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson Workshop, Kilburn in preparation for the sale. The Mouseman Workshop will welcome any items purchases from Tennants sale for restoration.
Robert Thomson was known as the ‘Mouseman’, and he worked in the village of Kilburn, North Yorkshire under the White Horse, producing a wide range of Arts and Crafts English Oak furniture in the early 20th century. Through a dedicated team of craftsmen his work continues to this day and every piece is recognizable by the little carved mouse which adorns it.
In the year of Leeds Girls’ High School’s jubilee (1929), Dr Lucy A Lowe (the headmistress) was offered an anonymous gift of £6,000 for the building of a library (an extension wing to the east side of the school) and provision of equipment.
Dr Lucy A Lowe was appointed headmistress in 1905 and served for 27 years in that position. She was the daughter of the late Rev. Charles Lowe, Honorary Canon of Manchester Cathedral.
Dr Lowe came out of retirement in Somerset to declare the new library open on Thursday, 10th May 1934 to a large gathering of pupils, parents and friends of the school. The day began with a morning service at the Parish Church with an address by the head of Berkhampstead School, Mr C Machell Cox, a friend of Mrs Leslie Kirk, the then head of the High School. A symbolic silver key was presented to Dr Lowe. Prior to this date, the library was informally opened on Thursday, 18th January 1934 with Dr Lowe conducting morning prayers and afterwards the school assembled in the new library itself for the ceremony. The hymn ‘O God, our help in ages past’ was sung and a passage from Isaiah read, followed by prayers.
Editorial from Leeds Girls’ High School magazine, Spring Term, 1934, No. 108 p.2: “its little mouse running up it, and all with that wavy satin finish which is only found on hand-worked wood”.
The library was built as a result of the joint work of the Education Committee’s architect Mr Frederick Broadbent F.R.I.B.A., the school’s librarian and Mr Robert Thompson of Kilburn.
The names of the people who signed the Year Book (Vol. III February 1928-November 1938) for the opening day were:-
Lucy A Lowe
Helena L Powell
C H Tetley, Chairman of Governors and son of one of the early governors
C Machell Cox
Florence L Barber
Helen C Briggs
E A Blackburn (old girl)
Hermione Unwin
Edith M Jones
W A Rees
Arthur Hawkyard, Esq. LLd MDJP
Prof. J Kay Jamieson
Beryl K Gott
Prof. Frank Smith
Rev. Canon W Thompson Elliott, Vicar of Leeds
F E Hutson
B M Connal
Elinor G Lupton, Vice-chairman of Governors and grand-daughter of one of the school’s founders
Fred Broadbent F.R.I.B.A
Robert Thompson
Leslie P Kirk, Headmistress in 1933/4
Mr J Rawlinson Ford (Yealand Conyers, Morecambe Bay) served as a school governor for over 50 years but due to his great age he sent a telegraph for the day’s proceedings.
Entries are being invited for Tennants next Catalogue Sale on 17-19 July 2008. For more information please contact Diane Sinnott at Tennants on +44(0)1969 623780
Auction info www.tennants.co.uk
