Bidders were spellbound by Robert “Mouseman” Thompson’s artistry at a recent Chiswick, England auction. Two of his famous oak refectory tables fetched an extraordinary £78,000 between them. Facilitated by Caroline Hawley, the auction—like Thompson’s long legacy—is stamped by the presence of his signature mice carvings.
The original table, which was assembled in 1937, is almost 6 m (19.7 feet) long. It was sold for the mind-boggling price of £42,000. This sum is a record for the amount ever paid at auction for a piece of Mouseman furniture. The record-breaking £440,000 bid came from an unidentified buyer in Yorkshire, illustrating the demand for Thompson’s one-of-a-kind imaginative designs.
In 1935 the second table was made and it stretched almost 5 meters (16.4 ft). Second best was Bidder 213 from Hawaii who paid a staggering £36,000. Each table came with four matching benches. The bidders had originally bought them for between £3,000 to £5,000. This is evidenced by the phone bidders during the auction, an indication of global interest in these unique works of art.
These tables and benches were donated by past students of a private preparatory school. This proud little school has been in the business of educating all children for almost 130 years. On December 31, the school publicly announced its closure. One step forward of that, they made the call to sell the tables to increase their final fundraising push. Furnishings had become crucial to the vitality of school life. Generations of students flocked to it to enjoy meals and form lifelong connections.
Caroline Hawley expressed her surprise at the auction’s outcome, stating, “It was amazing. Both bids just went up and up.” The auctioneers said the £42,000 paid for that debut table was “astonishing.” Together with the sheer joy of interacting with Thompson’s artistry, their response signified a rare respect for the history of these objects.
