MACKINTOSH, Charles Rennie
(b. 1868, Glasgow, d. 1928, London)

Washstand

1904
Oak, ceramic tile, coloured and mirror glass, and lead, 161 x 130 x 52 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Mackintosh designed this washstand as part of the furnishings for the Blue Bedroom in Hous'hill, an eighteenth-century residence in a suburb of Glasgow he remodelled for Kate Cranston (Mrs Cochrane) and her husband. Miss Cranston, one of Mackintosh's most important clients, was the proprietress of a group of highly successful tearooms in Glasgow, many of which she had Mackintosh design. With its uncompromising shape and a brilliant abstract panel of glass, the washstand shows the architect/designer at the height of his creative power.