Appealing to a coterie of committed enthusiasts, prices for Mouseman carvings continue to bring muscular sums in the salerooms.
The latest example of this was the £10,000 (estimate £3000-4000) bid at Tennants (22% buyer’s premium) in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on March 4 for an oak mantel clock case, c.1967, carved with elephants and the mouse trademark.
Housing a battery-operated German movement, it measures 18in (44cm) across.
A decade ago, these were much more affordable. By way of example, one sold for £1300 at Bonhams Edinburgh in 2009; another selling for £1700 at Tennants in 2012.
The carver Stan ‘Woodpeckerman’ Dodds produced a number of these before and after leaving the Kilburn workshop.
A similar clock carrying Dodds’ rabbit signature (one he used before switching to the woodpecker in the 1960s) sold at Tennants for £5000 in December 2020.
Dating from the 1960s, these clocks are later than the record-setting pair of Mouseman elephant bookends sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne in July 2019 for £10,000.
Probably made by master carver George Weightman in the 1930s, they were believed to have been commissioned by African wildlife enthusiast John Weston Adamson while he lived at Oldstead Hall, near Kilburn.
