The c.1898 oak tub chairs sold at £90,000 and £60,000 each (plus 25% buyer’s premium) on October 30.
This chair design was among three items of seated furniture Mackintosh created for the Billiards and Smoking Rooms of Miss Cranston’s second tearoom project.
These menonly rooms occupying the building’s top two f loors prompted three sturdy designs combining English Arts & Crafts with the Scottish vernacular: a ladderback armchair, a similar stool minus the ascending wooden slats and this cube-shaped tub chair with its gently curved and moulded timbers.
When Miss Cranston’s Argyle Tea Rooms closed in 1920, and much of the furniture was dispersed, these armchairs came into the possession of Glasgow restauranteur William Smith, whose daughter passed them onto the current owner as a gift.
