An Arts & Crafts Yorkshire School English Oak Bed with integrated bedside cabinets by Sid Pollard [ex-Mouseman] c. 1960. A very attractive combined headboard and bedside cabinets, that will transform a standard divan double bed into an item of beauty, with convenient storage drawers. The compact width of just 203cm (6 feet 8 inches) also allows it to fit into a small space, so perfect for a room with limited wall space. Featuring:

• Splits into 3 for ease of transport.

• Solid English Oak throughout (excluding drawer bases).

• Headboard with for rows of single plank fielded panels surrounded by rails and stiles joined by blind tenons secured with hand made pegs.

• Handmade wrought iron fittings.

• 2 cabinets each with 3 felt lined drawers (made with single plank fronts solid drawer carcasses joined with lap and through dovetails).

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Width 2030mm (6 feet 7 3/4 inches).

• Headboard Width 1460mm (4 feet 9 1/4 inches) [The right size for a standard UK divan/mattress].

• Overall Height 1000mm (3 feet 3 1/4 inches).

• Cabinet widths 285mm ( 11 inches).

• Cabinet Depths 410mm (1 foot 4 inches).

• Cabinet Heights 530mm (1 foot 8 3/4 inches).

c. 1960.

Sid Pollard did not mark his work.

Good sound condition with good colour, tight joints, original handles and smoothly sliding drawers. A few small marks and dints discoverable upon close inspection, 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.