In the search for iconic trademarks, companies now employ teams of consultants, so there's something endearing simple about Thompson's
Eureka moment.

Working in his Kilburn workshop in the early part of the 20th century, a conversation with a colleague about being as poor as a church mouse inspired the carpenter to carve a tiny mouse into the corner of a huge cornice, sowing the seeds for a legacy which lives on today.

Thompson, who became known as the Mouseman of Kilburn, was a perfectionist and, if any proof were needed of his attention to detail, a quick glance through the catalogue of Tennant's Summer Sale should suffice.

This weekend, 75 years after he won a commission from Leeds Girls' High School, a large collection of Mouseman oak furniture, originally housed in the senior library, will be sold to the highest bidder. Together the oak chairs, bookcases, tables and radiator covers represent hundreds of hours of painstaking craftsmanship.

"I was born in 1954, but it wasn't until the late 1960s that I realised how special great grandfather was," says Ian Thompson Cartwright, who now runs the family firm with his brother and cousins. "Until then I thought we were just village cabinet makers.

"In truth, Robert Thompson was just a small cog in the Arts and Crafts movement, but I think his furniture has remained popular partly because of the mice, which people find irresistible, but also because of the sheer level of workmanship.

"There was a timeless quality to everything he did. He was just a normal North Yorkshire boy who went to the village school and left knowing the Three Rs, but he also had a quiet determination. I don't think he ever stood back and looked at just how much he had achieved, he just put his head down and got on with it."

Last year, a sale of Mouseman school furniture from Richmond Boys Grammar sold for double the original estimate and the Leeds Girls' High School collection, which cost £1,100 in 1933 is expected to fetch between £100,000 and £200,000 when it goes under the hammer on Saturday.

Coinciding with the sale, an extended edition of Mouseman: The Legacy of Robert Thompson of Kilburn has just been published in recognition of the growing interest in the work of the Yorkshire craftsman.

The book, which includes a series of trails highlighting the best locations to see his work, inspires nostalgia, but in Kilburn, things have continued pretty much unchanged.

"It would have been easy to move over to mass production," says Ian, who began his own apprenticeship in the workshop after leaving school at 16.

"But that would have meant moving out of the village to some industrial estate and if we had gone down that route, corners would have inevitably been cut and the quality would have suffered.

"Yes, we've introduced more modern styles, steel handles and lighter woods, but we still make many pieces to the original designs. We've always wanted to be true to great-grandfather's ideal, and mechanisation would be about as far as you could get from the company's origins.

"No members of the family have ever been forced into the business, but we've been lucky enough to have the chance to go off and do other things and then come back to the business with a fresh eye.

"I'm not as hands-on as I was once was and maybe if I had known when I was starting out that I would end up spending eight hours a day, five days a week behind a desk I may have done something different. However, with this kind of business there is always a new challenge and the feeling of satisfaction you get when you see a finished piece, the likes of which you know will be never be made again, remains."

While the firm, which now trades as Robert Thompson's Craftsmen, sits at the higher end of the furniture market, it hasn't been immune from the well-documented skills shortage.

Just last week, David Sheriff, the architect behind the multi-million pound restoration of Selby Abbey warned a shortage of those trained in traditional crafts was threatening the nation's heritage, and Ian admits finding suitable applicants to fill apprenticeships is not as easy as it once was.

"A few years ago we did notice that everyone seemed to want to go into IT," he says. "Learning a traditional skill was suddenly seen as somehow second best, but there are still a lot of people who aren't perhaps brilliant academically, but have a real talent for craftsmanship.

"The core of our business is valuing their work. Even today we try to ensure that whoever starts a piece finishes it. Our craftsman have a personal investment in their work."

"I remember the man who trained me saying, 'The day you stop learning is the day they carry you out in a box'. That's stuck with me, and really do believe it's true."

One of the best examples of Robert Thompson's work is at Ampleforth College and Benedictine monastery. His work on the library began in 1934 and finished some 16 years later when he added the room's immense door. For Ian the picturesque village is particularly special since the family have recently continued where the original Mouseman left off.

"Great-grandfather always referred to the Ampleforth library as 'his room' and it is a stunning piece of work," he says.

"More recently we were asked to design a bar for the college's Windmill Social Club, which now we call 'our room'.

"Mouseman furniture was never supposed to be museum pieces and to see work by three generations of our family in one place does make me incredibly proud."

For more details of the Tennants Summer Sale, including the Leeds Girls High lots, call 01969 623780 or call www. tennants.co.uk

Mouseman: The Legacy of Robert Thompson of Kilburn, published by Great Northern Books, priced £18.75 (inc postage and packing) is available to buy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop on 01748 821122. Cheques or postal orders, made payable to Yorkshire Books Ltd, can be sent to Castle Hill Bookshop, 1 Castle Hill, Richmond, DL10 4QP.