Willow Tea Rooms (Glasgow, Scotland) : Front elevation, west projecting sign, detail at top, depicting birds

Creator:

Macdonald, Margaret, 1865-1933
Mackintosh, Charles Rennie, 1868-1928

Published/Created:

199 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
1903

Date Depicted:

5/25/2007
1900 AD - 1949 AD

Materials:

iron
stone
stucco

Notes:

The best-known Mackintosh interiors were those created for Miss Catherine Cranston's four tea-rooms in Glasgow: Buchanan Street (1896), Argyle Street (1897), Ingram Street (1900) and the Willow (1903), of which only the last-mentioned survives at 199 Sauchiehall Street. In the Willow tea-room Mackintosh had total control of the project both inside and outside; his wife contributed some of the decorative motifs. On the ground floor he set up an unpainted frieze of plaster panels, their angular outlines leading the eye deeper into the stems and branches of the willow wood. Above, in the Room de Luxe, a leaded-glass frieze with pink and green insets was placed against white painted walls, and on the curved bay, leaf-shaped mirror glass shimmered like the stirring of willow leaves. Mackintosh had already developed in domestic commissions austere all-white ensembles of decoration with a few pieces of slender, white furniture, but such refinement of construction was not practical in a public place. In the Room de Luxe the chairs, of two sizes, are silver with purple upholstery; the tops of the higher chairs are pierced by a grid of squares, a favourite Mackintosh device.

Variant Titles:

Willow Tea-room

Topics:

Architecture -- Britain -- 20th century -- (YVRC)

Period/Style:

Art Nouveau
Glasgow style

Culture:

British

Accession Number:

1A1-MCR-WT-C5

Genre:

architecture (AAT)
restaurants: tea rooms (AAT)

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Sculptures, Models, & Architecture

Rights:

Copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.

Access Restrictions:

Yale Community Only

Digital:

architectural exteriors; business, commerce and trade; decorative arts; tea-room, decoration construction ; metalworking; painting and painting techniques; stained glass buildings; commercial buildings; restaurants; tea rooms bird; metalwork

Source Creator:

Gilchrist, Scott

Source Title:

Archivision Module Three

Source Created:

2878 Chamonix, Montreal QC
Archivision, Inc.
5/25/2007

Source Note:

Purchase, Visual Resources Collection, May, 2011; photographer Scott Gilchrist

Yale Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Digital Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Local Record Number:

4152

OID:

10156738

PID:

digcoll:1865931