Charles Rennie Mackintosh Club Chairs

Set of 2 DS3 model chairs designed by the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1918 and produced by Cassina, in the "I Maestri" collection, starting from 1975. In open por...

The Willow Chair is a curved lattice back chair with an ebonized ashwood frame. The seat opens to reveal a hidden storage space and Cassina mark and serial number. It was designed by Charles R. Mackintosh in 1903 for the "Willow Tea Room" at 217 Sauchiehall St., Glasgow. Having already worked on the interiors for Catherine Cranston's tea rooms at Argyle Street, Buchanan Street and Ingram Street, in 1903 Mackintosh was asked to oversee every aspect of the design for a new premises on Sauchiehall Street. Unlike previous projects for Cranston, this time the architect was able to address both the exterior and interior of the building – a terraced house that was largely gutted to allow for its transformation into the tea rooms. I've included an exterior photo of the building from 1903 as image 6, courtesy of the Willow Tea Rooms Trust and Annan photographs, as well as street photos (images 7-9) that show how distinct Mackintosh's design truly was (and remains). In turn of the century Glasgow, the temperance movement was in full effect and Catherine Cranston (widely known as Miss Cranston, image 10) was a businesswoman, daughter of a successful tea merchant and a strong supporter of temperance. The temperance movement was a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages and in favor or teetotalism (complete abstinence). One of the main goals of the Births Temperance movement was to reduce drinking by closing and replacing as many pubs as possible. Miss Cranston conceived the idea of a series of "art tearooms" throughout Glasgow, where people could meet to relax and enjoy non-alcoholic refreshments in a variety of different "rooms." Between 1896 and 1917, Mackintosh designed and restyled interiors (and exteriors, in the case of the Willow property) in all four of Cranston's tearooms. After working on murals for her 1896 tearoom, furniture and interiors for her 1898 property and a dining room in her 1900 Ingram Street property, Mackintosh was commissioned to design every aspect of the tearooms in Sauchiehall Street in 1903, the internal layout, exterior architecture, furniture (images 11-14), glasswork (image 15-16), menus, waitress uniforms, cutlery (image 17), tablecloths, carpets, timber work, etc. The interior plan (image 18) saw a ladies' tea room situated at the front of the ground floor, with a lunch room to the rear. A vaulted room on the first floor was transformed into the grand Salon de Luxe (Image 13), while further rooms upstairs became the men's billiards (image 19) and smoking rooms. Mackintosh also designed another of his best-known pieces of furniture for the Willow Tea Rooms – a large, sculptural chair...