'Mouseman' table which survived Blitz up for sale

A "Mouseman" table thought to have been used by MPs during the Blitz is expected to fetch up to £12,000 at auction.

The oak refectory table was made at the North Yorkshire workshop of Robert "Mouseman" Thompson - so-called because of the signature mouse motif carved into many of his pieces.

It was commissioned in 1937 for the new headquarters of the Anglican Church next to Westminster Abbey - where MPs met in secret when Sir Winston Churchill feared Parliament could be a target for German bombers.

The table is due to go under the hammer at York auction house Duggleby Stephenson on Friday, almost 150 years after Thompson was born on 7 May 1876.

It is part of a collection of Mouseman items that are being sold in a "Yorkshire Masters and Makers Auction".

It was made in the workshop in Kilburn, the village where the Mouseman was born and lived.

Duggleby Stephenson said the table was commissioned for the new Westminster Church House by the architect Sir Herbert Baker.

The building was officially opened by King George VI in June 1940, and the church had exclusive use of its new headquarters for just a matter of weeks before MPs moved in.

MPs decamped there for Parliamentary sessions, which took place in complete secrecy for months, and then for a time after the Chamber of the House of Commons was destroyed by bombing in May 1941.

Duggleby Stephenson's Holly Hammond said: "Robert Thompson's refectory table was in the middle of all this.

"It survived unscathed when the building was actually hit by a bomb that destroyed the organ."

She added: "We can never know who sat round this piece of Yorkshire craftsmanship and what matters were discussed but Church House was the very centre of government in some of the darkest days of the war."

Hammond said it was the location of the first meeting of the United Nations Security Council in 1945 and as it was the headquarters of the Anglican Church, no doubt some very famous names sat around the table.

The refectory table not only has the Thompson trademark mouse but, unusually, even more carved symbols.

Two of the legs have loaves of bread, alluding to the architect - Baker - who commissioned the piece.

The other two legs have partridges, believed to be a nod to the Bishop of Portsmouth, Frank Partridge, who played an important part in the Church House project and was the secretary between 1936 and 1941.

Hammond said: "The table has been entered by a vendor who has been taking an interest in Mouseman for more than 40 years and began buying at a time before prices rocketed to their current levels.

"This is a very special piece, even by Mouseman standards, and it is expected to make £8,000 - £12,000."

Other highlights of the 61 Mouseman lots in the auction include a 1940s panelled vestibule door with a glazed section that is expected to make £8,000-£12,000, and a panelled oak front door that has a pre-sale estimate of £7,000-£10,000.

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