£3,000
Auction: DESIGN Since 1860
ebonised beech with polychrome painted decoration, caned seat and back panels
Provenance: T. & R. Annan & Sons Ltd., Glasgow
Literature: Billcliffe, Roger; Charles Rennie Mackintosh, The Complete Furniture etc. pub. The Lutterworth Press, 1978, illus. 1896G.
Moon, Karen 'George Walton', White Cockade 1993, p.53, pl. 63
Note: This chair was made for Miss Cranston's new tearoom in Buchanan Street in Glasgow in 1896. This scarce chair, with its tall, curved back echoing the stencilled wall decoration and the hand-painted floral sprigs following the colour scheme of the walls. The tall vertical form of the chair continues the 'Glasgow Style' aesthetic whilst the Regency inspiration which the design subverts is still evident, particularly on the matching armchairs with their lower backs. Other versions of this chair were used by Walton in schemes throughout his career, but the Buchanan Street chairs are marked out by their painted decoration.