Skip to content

Rare Mackintosh cutlery sells for more than £175,000

Lyon & Turnbull A set of silver cutlery on a black background. A person wearing white gloves holds a dessert spoon in the middle Lyon & Turnbull
The Charles Rennie Mackintosh cutlery set was commissioned in 1902

An "extremely rare" set of silver cutlery designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh has been sold for £175,200.

The cutlery - sold by fine art auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull - went for nearly six times its initial estimate of between £20,000 and £30,000.

Architect and artist Mackintosh is known for designing iconic Glasgow buildings including Glasgow School of Art and the Willow Tearooms, as well as his trademark Mackintosh rose.

The soup spoon, dessert spoon, dinner fork and dessert fork form part of a set commissioned in 1902 by Scottish artist Jessie Newbury and her husband Francis "Fra" Newbery.

The pair were long-term friends of Mackintosh and his artist wife Margaret Macdonald.

Fra Newbury played a crucial role in promoting Mackintosh's work, as he commissioned him to design Glasgow School of Art when he was its director in 1896.

The order for the cutlery was placed through Glasgow jeweller Edwards & Company.

It was crafted by David W Hislop - a skilled silversmith who has previously worked with Mackintosh on a number of projects.

The set was later divided between the Newbery's daughters, Mary and Elsie, and the pieces Mary inherited were sold separately between 1970 and 1980.

Lyon & Turnbull A woman with dark hair hold a framed painting with gloves in an art gallery. The painting shoes a scene of a town, with buildings high upon a hill.Lyon & Turnbull
Ursula Goldsmith from Lyon & Turnbull holds Mackintosh's painting Bouleternère

The auction featured other items by Mackintosh including a watercolour of a French village he painted in 1925 - just three years before he died.

The artwork, titled Bouleternère, sold for £150,200.

Two small watercolours - Brookweed and Pimpernel - which were painted more than two decades earlier in 1901, both sold for £18,900.

And a cabinet designed by Mackintosh for Scotland Street School in Glasgow in 1906 went for £7,560.

John Mackie, head of sales at Lyon & Turnbull, said the auctioneers were "absolutely delighted" with the sale.

"Mackintosh's cutlery design was revolutionary," he said. "The spoons and forks have exceptionally long, slender handles.

"The forks are particularly striking with a seamless transition between the handle and bowl creating the illusion of a single, continuous band of metal.

"It's always exciting to be on the rostrum and today's result testifies to the enduring and growing appetite for Mackintosh's pioneering and distinctive design."