An Arts & Crafts Yorkshire School English Oak Sideboard by Sid Pollard [ex-Mouseman] c 1980. A very impressive sideboard in the classic Yorkshire School style. Featuring:

• Solid English Oak.

• 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).

• Adzed on all visible surfaces (the subtle surface rippling synonymous with Yorkshire School furniture) Adzing does not interfere with use and objects will happy stand steadily on an adzed surface.

• 4 drawers (made with single plank fronts solid drawer carcasses joined with lap and through dovetails).

• Handmade wrought iron fittings.

• 2 doors with single plank fielded panels surrounded by rails and stiles joined by blind tenons secured with hand made pegs opening to fixed shelves.

• Sides and back with single plank fielded panels surrounded by rails and stiles joined by blind tenons secured with hand made pegs.

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

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Length 1540mm (5 feet and 1/2 of an inch).

• Overall Height 800mm (2 feet 7 1/4 inches).

• Overall Depth 470mm (1 foot 6 1/2 inches).

c 1980.

Unmarked as is almost all Side Pollard’s work, but a very well known one of his designs. For other examples of this design see Tennants Auctioneers In Modern Living: Art & Design sale 22 Jun 2019, Lot 629 or their 20th Century Design Sale 02 Mar 2024, Lot 278.

Very good condition with excellent rich colour and grain, snugly closing doors, smoothly sliding drawers and tight joints. The top shelf in the right hand cupboard is missing. A few marks and dints discoverable upon close inspection, but much less than expected with an item that has been in use for 50 or so years. 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 had 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.