A superb, rare 1930s Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson light burr oak chapel chair with two crossed keys carved onto the back panel. In ecclesiastical terms, crossed keys symbolise the 'keys of heaven'. The symbolism originates from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus says to the Apostle Peter: 'I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven'. Never seen this before on a Mouseman piece, making it quite unique. 
 
Being a chapel chair, it has a shelf underneath the seat for the bible. The seat has been made from a piece of light burr oak and is adzed (rare). There's a bit of burr in the back panel, too. Again, rare.
 
The condition is good. There is a section of the back of the seat that has worn down - see picture. There is also a small section to the back of the seat under the chair which has a loss, you can't really see it unless the chair is turned upside down but it should be pointed out - see picture. Other than that, the chair just has wear in line with almost 100 years of regular use - small chips, faint stains (which would polish out), a couple of age-related, natural cracks etc. It has fantastic patination, it looks almost like dark treacle.
 
The whole chair is adzed, even the legs, which again is quite rare. After the mid 1940s Mouseman stopped fully adzing chairs due to the second world war. Unfortunately, some of his craftsmen were killed in action, and he found it difficult to recruit others. So he began adzing just the back panels to save on time. 
 
The height of the chair measures 90 cm. The width is 45 cm. The depth is 45 cm. The seat height is 47 cm.
 
All in all, it is a wonderful, unique, Mouseman piece. It came from a chapel in Yorkshire and is in original, unrestored condition. The signature mouse has been carved on the front, left leg.
 
It is commonly known that a lot of Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson's 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 trademark. This is about 30 years ago.
 
Extract from The Mouseman of Kilburn. The Story of Robert Thompson and the 'Church Mouse'