Argyle Chair

The light this afternoon was fabulous as it burst through the rooflight in the Mackintosh Church Hall.

We have a number of Mackintosh reproduction chairs created by Bruce Hamilton within the building. The Argyle Chair is possibly Mackintosh's most iconic piece of furniture.

The so-called Argyle Street high-back chair, conceived in 1898-1899, was the first instance of Mackintosh making an extreme revision of a conventional form, and this particular chair, more than any other, has come to represent the essence of his visionary career.

The attenuated lines and exaggerated height of its back anticipated many of Mackintosh's later designs. It is the first of his high back chairs to feature the top rail as an emblematic iconic symbol. The back uprights support an enlarged oval headrest with a fretted stylised flying swallow shape. Mackintosh raised the height of the chairs in order that the furniture make a dramatic statement within the room.

All the major museums and galleries like the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris want to have an iconic Mackintosh masterpiece, like the Argyle Chair.

In a modern context various films like Inception, Blade Runner, Friends and Crocodiles and Star Trek have used Mackintosh's designs to create a social statement.