Argyle chair
Mackintosh’s first high-backed chair, with an oval crest like a bird in flight.
The chair was designed for Miss Cranston’s tea room on Argyle Street in Glasgow in 1897. It began Mackintosh’s series of tall, slender chairs, as architectural as the rooms around them. Examples are in the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Materials: Dark-stained oak, upholstered seat
Manufacture: Straight oak uprights and a tall, narrow back with an oval panel at the top; pierced cut-out.
The back is almost twice the height of an ordinary chair and ends in an oval with a cut-out bird.
The back legs taper to the floor and splay slightly.