This chair was designed for Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms in Argyle Street, Glasgow. The high-backed chairs were placed around the tables in the centre of the room in order to create an intimate island. Although Mackintosh is unanimously considered one of the outstanding figures of Art Nouveau, in many aspects his work anticipates some themes of “modernism”. It is no coincidence that Nicolas Pevsner includes him in his „Pioneers of Modern Design“ (1936). Wylie Sypher in his „From Rococo to Cubism“ (1960) specifies how both rococo and art nouveau were movements within the decorative arts that were integrated into architecture as well. In Mackintosh’s interior designs, stylized lines and geometric forms reinforce an architectural dialog which from Art Nouveau onwards, with the progressive marginalisation of 19th century decorative syntax, mirrored the unification of interior design and architecture characterizing the modern movement.
