THOMAS GNOMEMAN WHITTAKER OF LITTLEBECK YORKSHIRE OAK STOOL

A Thomas Gnomeman Whittaker Yorkshire Oak Stool with a new leather hide seat decorative antique brass studded pins to the seat. raised on a trestle base with pegs to each end carved waisted end supports one with a carved gnome signature

Excellent patina and fully adzed to all visible areas

Height 40 cm
Width 29 cm
Length 39 cm

Circa 1960

Price: Sold

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 used only 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 Gnome mans work is highly sought after.
See also http://www.britishpathe.com/video/gnome-man/