Cats & Mice: 20th Century Design Sale

Three of Louis Wain’s quirky and charming Lucky Mascots are coming up in the 20^th Century Design Sale on 28^th February at Tennants Auctioneers. Louis Wain (1860-1939), a shy and eccentric man, created an extraordinary and vivid world populated by anthropomorphic cats. One of the most recognisable artists of the Edwardian era, he helped change the perception of cats in the early 20^th century and left and extraordinary artistic legacy. Alongside his widely recognised cat pictures, in 1914 Wain created a series of highly collectable ceramic Lucky Mascots, inspired by avant-garde art movements such as Cubism, Fauvism and Futurism. Each mascot came with a lucky charm attached, a little printed paper motto that was easily removed and damaged and thus are exceedingly rare today. The models all carried their own lucky motto; for example, the Lucky Knight Errant Cat had the motto “I will fight your enemies for you and help you conquer your troubles in all that is right”. Coming up for sale this February are Lucky Futurist Cat with his Meow Meow Notes (estimate: £1,000-1,500 all figures exclude buyer’s premium), The Lucky Black Cat (estimate: £1,000-1,500), and The Lucky Haw Haw Cat (estimate: £600-900).

Continuing on the animal theme, the sale will also offer an exceptional range of English Oak Carvings by the Workshop of Yorkshire icon Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson and by Stan ‘Woodpecker’ Dodds, sourced from several private vendors. Mouseman began producing highly collectable finely carved animal sculptures in the 1960s, employing the talents of their master craftsmen, which included Stan Dodds for many years. The Mouseman carvings in the sale are The Mouseman of Kilburn, an anthropomorphic figure of a mouse dressed as a Mouseman craftsman (estimate: £6,000-9,000), a Pheasant (estimate: £3,000-5,000), a Fox (estimate: £3,000-4,000), and an Owl (estimate: £2,000-3,000). By Stan ‘Woodpeckerman’ Dodds are a Mare and Foal Group (estimate: £3,000-5,000), a Circus Elephant (estimate: £3,000-4,000), a Sparrow Hawk (estimate: £3,500-4,000), and a Badger (estimate: £1,000-1,500).

Amongst the furniture in the sale are ten pieces of Arts and Crafts furniture by Windermere-based cabinetmaker Stanley Webb Davies (1894-1978). Davies created simple, eminently practical furniture without unnecessary adornment, borrowing construction techniques and stylistic elements from traditional rural objects and influenced by the likes of Ernest Gimson and Sidney Barnsley. Yet everything he made was very carefully designed, with each piece meticulously drawn to scale. His work can be recognised by its marked solidity compared to the work of many of his contemporaries. Only using solid timber, his furniture had clean, unfussy lines and he constructed all his handles, latches, and mechanisms in wood.  Highlights from two private collections include a Panelled English Oak Desk made in 1956 (estimate: £1,500-2,500) and from a bedroom suite a Chestnut Wardrobe (estimate: £1,500-2,000), and a Chestnut Dressing Table (estimate: £1,000-1,500) both made in 1949.

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