Pair Of Argyle Chairs By Charles Rennie Mackintosh For Atelier International, Italy

Italy / 1970 / 2 Argyle Chairs / Charles Rennie Mackintosh / Atelier International / wood, vinyl / Mid-century / Vintage

Pair of Argyle Chairs in black sold wood with red vinyl seats. The Argyle chairs are designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1897 for Atelier International, and exhibited at the Eighth Secession Exhibition in Vienna, Austria in 1900.

It is one of the most iconic chairs of the famous Scottish architect, designer and painter Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the most famous of the Glasgow Movement. The chair, similar in size and scenic presence to a real throne, was reissued by the Italian company Cassina starting in the 1980s. These chairs were made before 1980 for Atelier International.

Although the design of the chair looks simple, it has actually been built with a combination of different geometric shapes fitted together like a jigsaw. The curves in the oval head piece neatly slot into the back posts, which are rectangular at the bottom, but gradually taper off into a circular form as they reach the top.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Argyle chair was originally designed for the Argyle Street Tea Rooms in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street. The owner, Kate Cranston, commissioned Mackintosh and the interior designer George Walton to decorate and furnish the rooms in 1897. The unusual height of the chairs meant that they formed a screen around the tables.

Mackintosh used the same chairs in his own flat, which was designed by his wife, Margaret Macdonald, at 120 Mains Street, Glasgow in 1900.