According to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Seven “Argyle” chairs, 1970s.

Based on designs by CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (Glasgow, 1868 – London, 1928).
Set of seven chairs based on models from the Argyle Street Tea Rooms. Probably from the 1970s.
The set consists of two high-back chairs and five low-back chairs.
Dark-stained oak and red faux leather upholstery.
In good overall condition, with slight signs of wear.
Measurements of the high-back chairs: approx. 137 x 51.5 x 48 cm. Seat height: 46 cm.
Measurements of the low-back chairs: approx. 106 x 45 x 47 cm. Seat height: 44 cm.

A set of seven chairs made according to designs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the famous Argyle Street Tea Rooms in Glasgow, one of the key commissions in the development of his style as a furniture designer. The series combines two styles: two imposing high-back chairs and five chairs of more modest proportions, all constructed of black-stained wood and contrasted with red-upholstered seats.
The taller chairs stand out for their extraordinary vertical backs, topped by a large openwork oval element—one of the most iconic motifs in Mackintosh’s furniture. The pronounced verticality of the uprights and the alternation between straight lines and curved forms lend these pieces an almost architectural quality. The original high-back chair designed for the Argyle Street Tea Rooms has measurements of approximately 136.5 cm and is one of the earliest major examples of the designer’s famous chairs with monumental backs.
The five shorter chairs employ the same design language, featuring backs made of narrow vertical slats and perforated upper crossbars. Mackintosh deliberately used different seat designs in the Argyle Street Tea Rooms, entrusting the high-backed chairs with the additional function of visually articulating the space and creating more intimate areas within the large rooms.

The international influence of these designs lasted throughout the 20th century and gained renewed popularity beginning in the 1970s, when some of Mackintosh’s models began to be industrially reissued in Italy. The Cassina firm, for example, added the Argyle chair to its production line in 1973, playing a decisive role in bringing the designer’s furniture back into contemporary interiors.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh occupies a central place in the history of European design from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. An architect, designer, and central figure of the so-called Glasgow School, he developed a wholly personal design language in which Scottish tradition, geometry, and a naturalistic stylization anticipated many of the concerns of the Modern Movement. His holistic approach to architecture, interior design, and furniture reached one of its earliest moments of maturity in Catherine Cranston’s establishments in Glasgow. At the Argyle Street Tea Rooms, Mackintosh was responsible for the movable furniture and designed, among other pieces, his famous high-backed chair with an oval top, now considered one of the icons of his work.