Mouseman

[Lurker]

I was watching a new tea time programme with Will the wood mangler and that nice looking lady antique expert, they sold at a very decent price some very so so stuff reputed to be from the mouseman workshop.

Other than the mouse, how can anyone be sure that it’s from his workshop?
And surely, any decent carver could replicate the mouse.

Edit: Robert Thompson.

 

[AndyP]

I can't answer that question but I am staggered to find out how much the 6 napkin rings, ashtray * and plant stand I have are now worth.
Bought by my father back in the 70s.

*shame ashtray has a fag burn

 

[RogerS]

...

*shame ashtray has a fag burn

But since it was Winston Churchill's cigar ......... :eusa-whistle:

 

[AJB Temple]

There is no reliable means of verification I fear and I expect fakes abound. We have a mouse-man cheeseboard and I bought another board years ago that I gave to bff. Any decent carver could copy them, though he had a recognisable pointy nose style.

 

[AndyP]

I can't answer that question but I am staggered to find out how much the 6 napkin rings, ashtray * and plant stand I have are now worth.
Bought by my father back in the 70s.

*shame ashtray has a fag burn

I should add that these were bought from the shop/workshop when we were on holiday in Yorkshire. Evidently, IIRC, there are subtle differences in the mouse that can give an indication of age.

 

[Mike G]

...... though he had a recognisable pointy nose style.

There were a number of craftsmen working in his workshop, and they all had their own style of mouse. It all went out of the door under his name, though.

 

[AJB Temple]

Ah. Didn't know that. The shape of the ones we have and that I've seen elsewhere all seem to have quite a pointy nose. There must be loads of them out there if there were several in the workshop.

 

[Blackswanwood]

They are local to me (Kilburn) and worth a visit if passing. Most of the work is with hand tools and you can watch their makers at work. Be prepared to sell a kidney if you want to make a purchase.

As Mike has mentioned each makers mouse is slightly different. There are fakes around - either last or the year before an ex employee was prosecuted for passing items off as original when he’d knocked them up in his shed.

I think I have posted this link before

https://www.yfanefa.com/record/6170

They now dress differently and the workshop is a bit tidier but the fundamental process is still the same.

 

[AJB Temple]

Interesting. After Mike's comments I read up about it this afternoon. The original bloke employed 30 tradesmen in his heyday. Copyrighted the mouse so they have to stay within design parameters.

Very good marketing.

 

[Argus]

There were others, I think doing something similar to mice…...

It reminds me of a BSI standards drafting meeting I attended back in the ‘90s that should have been held at the DTI in Victoria Street, but ended up, due to some last minute cock-up in the bookings, taking place around the corner in Church House, part of the Westminster Abbey set-up.

No problem. Close by and a lovely old building.

We were allocated a big side room with a huge, very dark fumed-Oak refectory table, about 8 or 10 feet long.

There were two things about that table that caught my attention: The first was that the surface of the whole top, a couple of great baulks about 1 ½ inches thick, was finished as if it had come straight from a scrub-plane. However, I think that this was intentional as all the faint grooves were laid out, without the randomness of a surface that will soon be obliterated. It was very neatly done, and had many years of polish.

The second was that at the top of one of the legs there was a small carved bird that resembled what I took to be a Pelican, looking upwards, about the same size of one of those carved mice.

Probably from the ‘Arts and Crafts’ period, but this thread on the Mouseman carvings reminded me of that table and the odd little bird-carving

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