Intended as a genteel couch for the ladies’ common room of the Glasgow School of Art, the bed was subsequently moved to the Sculpture Room where it served as a recliner for models until the 1960s, when it was set alight by one of the heaters and banished to the basement.
Salvaged by a student, George Parsonage, and employed in the boat shed of the Glasgow Humane Society on the banks of the Clyde, the day bed survived a further fire and three floods, even floating off down the river on one occasion. Not in the best of condition, the 7ft (2.13m) long bed sold below estimate to Edinburgh dealer Patrick Bourne for £17,000 (plus 15 per cent premium).
Charles Rennie Mackintosh stained birch day bed
UK: THE designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh are normally associated with stellar prices in the salerooms, but this stained birch day bed struggled to get away at Lyon and Turnbull’s Glasgow sale of Decorative Arts on April 18 and indeed had experienced a fair degree of ignorance or neglect in the course of its history.
