A bedside cabinet designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh has sold for £250,000 at auction.
The famed Scottish architect and designer devised the mahogany cabinet in 1916 for the only house he designed in England – 78 Derngate in Northampton, now a visitor attraction.
With its angular lines and minimal decoration, it marks a departure from the curved and stylised motifs that characterised much of his earlier work.
The piece led Lyon & Turnbull’s specialist Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 auction after being placed for sale by a private collector in London.
READ MORE: Glasgow School of Art insurers win legal action over Mackintosh building reconstruction
It sparked an international bidding battle at the online auction on Tuesday, selling for £250,000 – well over the estimated sale price of £100,000 to £150,000.
Meanwhile, another work by one of the Glasgow Four – Mackintosh’s sister-in-law Frances Macdonald McNair – sold for £125,000, more than 10 times the lower end of its estimated price of £10,000-£15,000.
The signed pencil drawing known as Das Eigenkleid Der Frau (Women’s Own Dress) is a design for a book cover.
READ MORE: Call goes out for cash to rescue historic Mackintosh tearoom
Lyon & Turnbull director John Mackie said: “We are delighted with the success of the sale.
“The prices achieved today reaffirm the international standing of these visionary Glasgow School artists and the ongoing appetite of the market to acquire outstanding design.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here