Robert Thompson's trademark style was to use and adze to make indentations on the smooth surfaces of tabletops and then burnish these to a high shine.
His mice were carved in relief - so that they poke out from the work and look like a little mouse climbing up the furniture, or carved incised, which means that they are carved into the wood. We only have one which is incised - on an altar rail in the Broadley Chapel.
(1876-1955), carpenter
Work: several items of woodwork
Robert Thompson was one of Yorkshire’s most skilled craftsmen in wood, specialising in oak furniture and loosely aligned to the Arts and Crafts movement. He became known as ‘Mousey Thompson’ because his trademark logo was a mouse. There are seven mice to be found in the Minster on five pieces of work. The family workshop was at Kilburn in North Yorkshire where the firm specialised in oak furniture and carried out a great deal of work for homes, churches and other buildings all over England, and in other parts of the world.
Thompson’s work was all hand crafted and now fetches very high prices in antique sales and shops.
