MOORCROFT FRAMED H 12.50 x W 12.50 x D 2.00 cm PLAQUE "DERNG...

Hammer

£30

MOORCROFT FRAMED H 12.50 x W 12.50 x D 2.00 cm PLAQUE "DERNGATE" (Shape No PLQ6) By Designer Emma Bossons FRSA FOR THE CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH COLLECTION. R.R.P. £90.00

(Perhaps Mackintosh’s most iconic design in 78 Derngate is to be discovered in the hall/lounge which was designed for entertaining, and was used as a ‘public’ room. Mackintosh was given a free hand, and designed a stair screen with panels of decorative leaded glass. Yellow was the one colour the colour-blind owner, Bassett-Lowke could see properly, and so it was used in leaded v-shapes which evoke the speed and streamlining he admired in trains.

Mackintosh’s decorative scheme diffused the potential gloominess of the room with theatrical drama. The walls, ceiling and woodwork were painted, in his words, a ‘velvety black’, relieved with a striking stencil scheme, which appears as heavily geometrical trees with chequered trunks, spaced around the walls. The tree concept was an old favourite of Mackintosh’s, but the jagged downward triangles and use of strong colours - golden yellow with touches of emerald green, vermillion, blue and petunia – anticipate a new and individual way the decorative arts would change with the arrival of Art Deco in the next decade.

One of three of a small trio of plaques recreating the square leaded glass panels in the staircase panelling, a further tribute by Emma to this striking room.)