The timber-lined room was saved from demolition in 1971 and the 800 carefully numbered wooden components were packed away in the city council’s stores until Glasgow Museums began an extensive research project delivered in partnership with V&A Dundee. This developed into a conservation project and, with Art Fund support, the Oak Room has now been reassembled as the centrepiece of the Scottish Design Galleries at the new V&A Dundee.

The theatrical Art Nouveau masterpiece features some of Mackintosh’s finest details, such as slender wooden columns, a delicate balcony and pink glass lampshades. See the feature in the autumn 2018 issue of Art Quarterly on how the Oak Room was painstakingly restored.

Provenance

Designed and built for Miss Catherine Cranston’s (1849-1934) Ingram Street Tearooms, Glasgow; sold to Messrs. Cooper & Co, a Glasgow tea and coffee merchant and operated as a tearoom until 1951; acquired by the Glasgow corporation, thereafter used a