A rare 1930s Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson chapel chair with a carved cross back. Being an early piece, the oak is a wonderful dark chocolate colour with fantastic patination that almost looks like treacle. It has a fully adzed panel seat which has some lovely natural knots which add a bit of character.
 
The condition is good. It has some chips (some wax filled, some not), especially to the front stretcher, faint stains etc, all in line with almost 100 years of regular use. The old signature mouse has been carved running up one front leg. It has one small wax filled chip to its back and rubbed ears, otherwise good. The whole chair has been fully adzed which is quite rare to see and is normally only seen on the early Mouseman pieces.
 
Overall, it's a very interesting early Mouseman piece with lots of history. Made around the same time Robert Thompson carved his little signature mouse for the very first time.​​​​​​ It is commonly known that a lot of his work was devoted to the inside furnishing of churches. The famous mouse signature came about when he was carving a church cornice with one of his craftsmen. In a letter to Revd. John H. W. Fisher, dated 10th February 1949, he wrote -
 
The origin of the mouse as my mark was almost in the way of being an accident. I and another carver were carving a huge cornice for a screen and he happened to say something about being as poor as a church mouse. I said I'll carve a mouse here and did so, then it struck me, what a lovely trade mark. This is about 30 years ago.
 
Extract from The Mouseman of Kilburn. The Story of Robert Thompson and the 'Church Mouse'
 
Having adopted the mouse signature around 1919, Thompson carved it onto some of his church pieces. Some of these pieces occasionally come to the market, including this chapel chair. 
 
The chair is 86 cm high. The width is 46.5 cm and the depth is 43 cm. The seat height is 46 cm.