Robert (Mouseman) Thompson

Robert (Mouseman) Thompson ( 1876 – 1955) was an English furniture maker based in Kilburn, North Yorkshire.

He established a business making Yorkshire oak furniture around 1919 after teaching himself to use traditional tools and experimented with ideas based on 17th century English styles. His claim to fame is that most of his pieces incorporate a carved mouse.

The mouse motif, it’s claimed, came about accidentally after a conversation about “being poor as a church mouse” in 1919 when he was chatting with a colleague whilst carving a cornice for a church screen. This led him to carve a small mouse this became his trademark from that point onwards.

In the 1920s he was part of the revival of craftsmanship which was inspired by the earlier Arts & Crafts movement originally led by William Morris, Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin.

Ampleforth College commissioned Thompson to make their furniture and liked it so much they kept commissioning pieces. His work now furnishes the library and most of the main building.

The company is now known as “Robert Thompson’s Craftsmen Ltd – The Mouseman of Kilburn.” and a workshop and showroom is still run by members of the family in Kilburn. The popularity and value of the furniture continues to rise with some claiming that he has become ‘the new Chippendale’.