Sid Pollard [ex-Mouseman] Arts & Crafts Yorkshire School Oak Coffee Table

An Arts & Crafts Yorkshire School English Oak Coffee Table by Sid Pollard [ex-Mouseman] C. 1980. A longer than usual coffee table in a classic Yorkshire School design, with the benefit of an unusual arched stretcher. Featuring:

• Solid English Oak throughout

• Very well figured quarter-sawn English Oak (quarter-sawing is a way of sawing oak to produce boards with superior strength which also reveals decorative 'medullary rays' in its grain.)

• Rectangular top made out of just one continuous piece of very well figured quarter-sawn oak.

• On shaped trestle supports with sledge feet joined with a single arched stretcher secured by keyed tenons

• Subtly adzed on all visible surfaces (the subtle surface rippling synonymous with Yorkshire School furniture)

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Length 1330mm (4 feet 4 1/4 inches)

• Overall Width 440mm (1 foot 5 1/4 inches)

• Overall Height 480mm (1 foot 6 3/4 inches)

C. 1980

Made for Mr & Mrs Headley of Selby

Good condition with excellent rich colour and grain, tight joints and free from woodworm. If you wish to have further specific photographs or talk to us for a more detailed condition report then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sid Pollard (Ex-Mouseman): One of Robert 'Mouseman)' Thompson's very early apprentices, who continued making the same style and quality of furniture in his own workshop. He was one of the few apprentices not to chose a trademark animal for his own work, (although some early items reportedly initially a rabbit motif) his work is almost always unmarked, preferring to let his craftsmanship speak for itself.

The most British of woods, that can produce really special results. English oak has been used for hundreds of years to construct everything from sea-going vessels to fine furniture. Although oak grows widely across Europe and North America, craftsmen continue to cherish English oak which grows more slowly than its foreign counterparts giving it strength, durability. Quarter sawn boards are very straight grained and have distinctive growth rings and medullary rays that give a very beautiful effect as well as being renowned for their superior stability and strength

The Yorkshire School of the Arts & Crafts movement started with Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson's  transformation from jobbing carpenter to master craftsmen. By the mid-1920s he had adopted his trademark mouse (now world renowned as a symbol of quality furniture) and had his own workshop busily employing several men. As the workshop grew and over the years many of the craftsmen have taken their skills and branched out and adopted a trademark of their own, a fox, a lizard, a fish, a rabbit to name but a few, and whilst some have closely stuck to the Mouseman designs others have taken the style and adapted it. Other craftsmen, unconnected to the Mouseman workshop, have also chosen the classic Yorkshire Oak style as their own. Typical Yorkshire school items are in English Oak, with traditional pegged joints and adzed surfaces