An exceptional price was achieved for a Mouseman English Oak Bowl, when it sold for £9,500 in the Mouseman and Yorkshire Critters Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 3rd October (all figures exclude buyer’s premium). Measuring 57cm diameter, the bowl was a bespoke commission and the largest example ever to have come up for auction at Tennants. However, the real charm of the piece was the addition of six carved mice – two large and four small - scurrying around the base of the bowl. A smaller example of a Mouseman six-mouse bowl sold at Tennants in June for £8,000.
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Mouseman Bowl Sells For £9,500
The sale achieved an impressive 97% selling rate, demonstrating the growing enthusiasm for traditionally made Yorkshire oak furniture. Indeed, over the last few years Mouseman and Yorkshire Critter sales at Tennants have attracted increasing numbers of bidders from outside the region and from other countries.
One of the other outstanding lots in the sale was a circa 1930s English Oak Monk’s Chair with provenance from the Horlicks Collection, which sold for £7,000. The chair was one of a set commissioned for the offices of ‘Messrs Horlick’ in Slough, each bearing the Horlicks coat of arms, and according to the ledgers of Robert Thompson were invoiced at a cost of £6 each.
Amongst the modern Mouseman lots in the sale was an example of the highly sought-after Hovingham Octagonal Coffee Table, which sold for £4,500, a new auction record for Tennants. The limited edition Hovingham tables were made in 2010 using burr oak from two ancient trees grown on the Hovingham Estate and crafted into tables using a design created by Robert Thompson in 1924 to celebrate the birth of his first grandchild.
Mouseman carvings continue to attract strong bidding, with the sale seeing an English Oak Pheasant selling for £4,000, and an English Oak Shire Horse carved in the 1970s by Stan Dodds, one of Mouseman’s master carvers, selling for £5,500.
The Mouseman and Yorkshire Critters Sale achieved a total hammer price of £142,700 for 144 lots and an 97% sold rate.
