By Philip Clissett, or C.R. Mackintosh? I've just uploaded to the website my new article on the link between Philip Clissett and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The research was sparked by this chair, advertised by Russell Theaker of the Cane and Rush Workshop, and bought by my sister-in-law (this is it's original condition, but Russell did a great job of re-seating it so do check him out).
In researching out this style of chair, I noticed that some apparently identical chairs were labelled by auction houses and dealers as by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and usually sold for astonishing prices. Digging further revealed that, while a chair like this had been (somewhat tentatively) attributed to Mackintosh in the 1970s, that attribution had never been certain and was withdrawn fully in 2010. Those chairs are indistinguishable from the one shown here, and are almost certainly by Philip Clissett. As a newcomer to this field, I find it worrying that a tentative attribution can have such an effect on prices.
Even worse, despite the withdrawal of attribution, at least one dealer is, right now, advertising several of these chairs as by Mackintosh. So, if you're in the market for an early chair by C.R. Mackintosh, take care! And check out my new article for more information...
In researching out this style of chair, I noticed that some apparently identical chairs were labelled by auction houses and dealers as by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and usually sold for astonishing prices. Digging further revealed that, while a chair like this had been (somewhat tentatively) attributed to Mackintosh in the 1970s, that attribution had never been certain and was withdrawn fully in 2010. Those chairs are indistinguishable from the one shown here, and are almost certainly by Philip Clissett. As a newcomer to this field, I find it worrying that a tentative attribution can have such an effect on prices.
Even worse, despite the withdrawal of attribution, at least one dealer is, right now, advertising several of these chairs as by Mackintosh. So, if you're in the market for an early chair by C.R. Mackintosh, take care! And check out my new article for more information...
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