Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Estimate

18,000 - 25,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

A fine armchair, designed for the Willow Tea Rooms
72.5cm. high by 55cm. wide by 44cm. deep;
2ft. 4 1/2 in., 1ft. 9 3/4 in., 1ft. 5 1/4 in.

oak, the rectangular back pierced with a handle, the sloping arms above a drop-in horse hair upholstered seat, the pierced trestle sides joined by twin stretchers

Provenance

Benno Schotz.
by descent

Literature

R. Billcliffe, Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings & Interior Designs, London, 1979, pp.129, 131, 134.

Catalogue Note

This, and the following lot, was purchased by the sculptor Benno Shotz from a Glasgow saleroom in 1939 or 1940. Originally part of a set of six, he sold four of the chairs to a collector who subsequently sold them at Sotheby's in 1974 (Sotheby's Belgravia, 3rd April 1974, lots 52 and 53). The remaining pair, the current and following lot, were passed to the current vendor in 1975 (see Billcliffe, op. cit., p.134).

As Billcliffe notes (p.128.) the last and most elegant of Miss Cranston's four Tea Rooms, the Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow, opened in October 1904. Located on Sauciehall Street, this commission is was historic since it was the only Tea Room where Mackintosh was able to design the exterior as well as the interior.

It is noted that the local furniture maker Alexander Martin quoted to make 50 armchairs of this design on the 23rd September 1903 at a cost of 18.6d., and was paid this on the 1st December. The chairs furnished the Gallery, Smoking Room and the ground-floor Saloons, and a contemporary photograph of the Back Saloon shows four armchairs to each table.