Robert Thompson shirehorse – £3200 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.
Most of these, carved with a mouse signature to the base, are thought to have been made by Stan Dodds who took over the role of master carver in Kilburn from George Weightman in the 1960s.
Dodds was probably the maker of a rare pair of bookends carved in the form of elephants (one with a recessed carved mouse signature) sold by the auction house in July 2019 for £10,000 (see ATG No 2401).
Only a handful of these horses have been sold in recent years. Tennants sold one in 2016 for £2600 while another took £2400 the same year at Lyon & Turnbull.
This 10in (25cm) example from the 1970s took £3200 in Somerset.
