Two chairs from a tearoom which were later to become design classics have been discovered in Ireland and are believed to be worth up to £180,000 sterling (£207,000).
The chairs, with characteristic 46["] -high backs to give customers a degree of privacy in a large open room, were made for the Argyle Street tea-rooms in Glasgow in 1898-9 to a design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. They were later given as a wedding present to Mrs Mary Maguire, who eventually moved to Crossmoyle House, Clones, Co Monaghan. They passed through two auctions before the present vendor's mother finally managed to buy them in the early 1950s.
The chairs are now to be sold separately, one for £60,000£80,000, the other for £80,000£100,000, at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, London, on November 11th.
Mackintosh, one of 11 children of a Glasgow policeman, was one of the foremost exponents of art nouveau in Britain.