THOMAS GNOMEMAN WHITTAKER 8 FT OAK DINING SUITE

A fully adzed oak Dining Table with a set of 8 fully adzed Panel Back Dining Chairs including 2 Carvers all with wonderful carved gnome signatures

The Oak Dining Table with a 3 plank adzed  top raised on a trestle base with carved waisted end supports recessed carved gnome signature to one end, the table top has a unique facility of being above to be lifted off for easy moving

Excellent patina and fully adzed to all visible areas

Height: 76 cm  30”      Width: 86 cm 34”       Length: 244 cm 96”

The chairs which have been reupholstered using the original hide, the chairs  have fully adzed panel backs above a stretched hide seat standing on four shaped legs connected by stretchers each with a carved Gnome signature to leg, it should be noted that the hide seats are in excellent condition with only minor marks

Circa: 1950-60

Price : sold

Reference No. 4072

Biography: Tom Whittaker circa 1910-1991 lived and worked in Littlebeck near Whitby after studying in his native York and with craftsmen in Germany and Switzerland.  He only used English oak and his trademark was to carve a little woodland gnome into each and every piece of furniture he made.  Legend has it that a gnome is born every time an acorn sprouts and then that gnome will guard that tree throughout its life.
Tom Whittaker the Gnome Man of Littlebecks work is highly recognised his Vulnerata statue of the wounded Virgin commissioned by the monastery of Valladolid replaced a figure defaced by Elizabethan sailors during a piratical raid is one of his noted works.
Tom Whittaker died in 1991 his business ended and his workshop was converted into a private house.  Of all the woodcarvers and furniture makers of North Yorkshire the Gnomeman’s work is highly sought after.
See also http://www.britishpathe.com/video/gnome-man/