A rare lantern designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms in Glasgow is to go under the hammer with an estimate of between £20,000 to £30,000.
It’s being auctioned, alongside several other works by the acclaimed Scottish designer, in Lyon & Turnbull's two-day long Design Since 1860 sale which takes place on Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 October in Edinburgh and online.
Lanterns of this design can be seen in photographs from Mackintosh's time, hanging in the White Dining Room in Ingram Street, also known and the Ladies’ Luncheon Room. This was completed in 1901.
This lantern is believed to be one of only five known complete examples still in existence. The rest belong to the cultural body, Glasgow Life, and were used in the reconstruction of the White Dining Room for a travelling Mackintosh Exhibition organised by Glasgow Museums in 1996.
Day two of the sale also includes Mackintosh’s striking and iconic version of a ladderback chair for Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms. Bidding is expected to start at between £10,000 and £15,000 for this unique chair, which was made around 1903 from stained oak.
The chair comes from the collection of the late Glasgow architect, Eric Sloane, who died in 2013. Mr Sloane had a lifelong interest in Glasgow and a deep interest in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Mackintosh had produced ladderback chairs previously. The most recent one prior to this one was made in 1901 for Windyhill, in Kilmacolm, Inverclyde. This house was designed by Mackintosh and furnished by him and his wife, Margaret Macdonald.
Made of an ebonised wood frame and rush seat, as well as the proliferation of rungs on the seat-back, The Willow Tearooms example differs in its “overwhelming statement of strength,” with rectangular and square section uprights and legs.
Also from Mr Sloane’s collection is a group of original cutlery from Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms, estimated at between £1500 and £2000.
Mackintosh’s folio of designs from December 1900 for German architecture and decorative arts publisher Alexander Koch's competition to design a Haus eines Kunstfreundes (House for an Art Lover) is estimated to sell for between £4000 and £6000.
Although Mackintosh's submission for this initiative to encourage innovative homes combining artistic vision with modern living was incomplete when entries closed, the judges recognised its originality and awarded him a special prize.
No first prize was awarded, reflecting the competition's demanding standards. By that time Mackintosh's work had gained international attention following his exhibition at the Vienna Secession in 1900.
Despite not being among the principal winners, Mackintosh's design became one of the competition's most influential entries. Almost a century later in 1999, a modified version of the House for an Art Lover design was built in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.
John Mackie, Lyon & Turnbull's Head of Design, who will be at the rostrum during Design Since 1860 explains:
"It’s a real privilege and delight to handle the lantern in this sale, a rare and beautiful object from Mackintosh’s most creative period.
“When it comes to the ladderback chair, this understated and deceptively simple design of 1903, for Miss Cranston's new Willow Tearooms in Sauchiehall Street, is his most successful treatment of this vernacular form.
“Mackintosh is one of the most important figures of the Modern Style in Britain at the turn of the last century – his impact on design history has ensured an international reputation and we anticipate interest from the UK and further afield."
