CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1968-1928) FOR MISS CRANSTON'S ARGYLE STREET TEA ROOMS
STOOL, 1898
£81,450
Auction: Lots 337 to 642 | 17th October at 10am
Description
stained oak
Dimensions
44.5cm wide, 38.5cm high, 38cm deep
Provenance
Provenance: Private Collection, Glasgow
Footnote
Literature: Billcliffe R. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings & Interior Designs, Cameron & Hollis, 2009, pp. 10-12, 55, 56 and 59., 1898.H where the stools are illustrated in situ, and 1898.34 where this example is illustrated
Howarth T. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and The Modern Movement. Routledge and Kegan Paul 1952, pl. 49B
Note: In 1898, early in Mackintosh’s career entrepreneur Catherine Cranston - known as Miss Cranston - commissioned him to furnish her new rooms at her tearooms on Argyle Street, Glasgow. Miss Cranston was to be an important patron for the young architect, who came to rely on a relatively small number of patrons throughout his career. The commission afforded Mackintosh a new freedom to experiment, whilst leading to further projects, including the Ingram Street Tea Rooms (1900) and the Willow Tea Rooms (1903)
The work at Argyle Street followed on from his previous work at Miss Cranston's new Buchannan Street Tea Rooms, which had been conceived two years earlier in 1896. mackintosh was commissioned to decorate the walls with designer George Walton the furnishings. In this new undertaking, however, Mackintosh found himself in a role reversal, being fully in charge of the furnishings whilst Walton was preoccupied with designing the interiors.
The furniture Mackintosh designed for these new rooms exhibit a new, more robust evolution of his repertoire and established a style for much of his work up to 1900. The bold and simple aesthetic of the designs marked him out from his contemporaries, and for the first time the distinctive furniture he produced was also employed to define and separate the rooms as designed by Walton.
This rare stool, one of five seen in contemporary photographs, was part of a group of furniture he designed for the Billiards and Smoking Rooms, which occupied the building's top two floors above the tea and luncheon rooms. The tearooms were a haven from the city for both men and women, however the Smoking and Billiards Rooms were purely a masculine domain and the design and construction of the furniture is a reflection of that fact.
Combining English Arts & Crafts and Scottish vernacular design, Mackintosh produced three types of sturdy and generous seating for these rooms; a ladderback armchair, its long, rectangular back rail adorned with ascending wooden slats; a cube shaped armchair, a version of the previous chair without the tall back; and a stool, only seen in the Smoking Room from contemporary photographs. All of the furniture was either clear-varnished or dark-stained and waxed. The construction of the stools is traditional, although the panelling and distinctively shaped cut-out handles to each side certainly not. The shaped seat is reflected in the other seating in these rooms.
The Argyle Street Tea Rooms closed in 1920, and much of the furniture was dispersed. The robust construction of the furniture has helped them withstand many years of use, however it is their beautiful and functional design which has stood the test of time.