Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed lantern to be sold at auction

A “rare and beautiful” lantern designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh is to be sold at auction this month along with several other of his works.

The lantern, designed for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms in Glasgow, is believed to be one of only five known complete examples still in existence.

It will go under the hammer with an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000 on the second day of Lyon & Turnbull’s design since 1860 sale, which takes place on Wednesday October 14 and Thursday 15 in Edinburgh and online.

Lanterns of this design can be seen in photographs from Mackintosh’s time hanging in the White Dining Room in Ingram Street.

Also known as the Ladies’ Luncheon Room, it was completed in 1901.

A ladderback chair Mackintosh designed for Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms in Glasgow also features in the sale, with bidding expected to start at between £10,000 and £15,000.

John Mackie, Lyon & Turnbull’s head of design, said: “It’s a real privilege and delight to handle the lantern in this sale, which is a rare and beautiful object from Mackintosh’s most creative period.

Lyon & Turnbull Associate Specialist, Ursula Goldsmith with a chair designed by Mackintosh (Stewart Attwood Photography 2026/PA)

“When it comes to the ladderback chair, this understated and deceptively simple design of 1903, for Miss Cranston’s new Willow Tearooms in Sauchiehall Street, is his most successful treatment of this vernacular form.

“Mackintosh is one of the most important figures of the Modern Style in Britain at the turn of the last century – his impact on design history has ensured an international reputation and we anticipate interest from the UK and further afield.”

The auction house said the other four lanterns known to be in existence belong to cultural body Glasgow Life, and in 1996 they featured in the reconstruction of the White Dining Room for a travelling Mackintosh exhibition which was organised by Glasgow Museums.

The chair comes from the collection of late Glasgow architect Eric Sloane, who died in 2013 and had a deep interest in the work of Mackintosh.

Other items in the sale include a selection of original cutlery from Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms, also from Mr Sloane’s collection, which will go under the hammer with an estimate of between £1,500 and £2,000.

Mackintosh’s folio of designs for German architecture and decorative arts publisher Alexander Koch’s competition to design a Haus eines Kunstfreundes (House for an Art Lover) is estimated to sell for between £4,000 and £6,000.

His designs from December 1900 were not complete when he submitted them but the judges recognised their originality and awarded him a special prize.

A modified version of the House for an Art Lover design was built in 1999 in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park.