The Willow Ladies JU3 Jug

The 150th anniversary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s birth was celebrated with a preview of the ten million pound restoration of the original Willow Tea Rooms. While the art school was seen by experts as the finest achievement of Glasgow's best-known and visionary architect, many of the public will view the tea rooms as the place that defined the Mackintosh style where Charles and his wife, Margaret, worked in unison. The tea rooms are on Sauchiehall Street, which at the turn of the last century was Glasgow's finest street. The name of the street is thought to be a corruption of the Scots language phrase meaning meadow of the willows.

The upper floors contained a smoking and billiards room for gentlemen, while the crowning jewel of the Willow, the Salon de Luxe – a lavender and silver-toned tea room, intended to appeal to a female clientele – took pride of place on the first floor of the building, taking full advantage of the northern light from Mackintosh’s new stained-glass bow window. Margaret Macdonald's Gesso panel in the Salon de Luxe, held a sculptural relief showing a woman among willow trees. It just so happens that one of Charles and Margaret's favourite poets and painters was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who wrote the sonnet, All ye that walk in Willowwood. Moorcroft designer, Vicky Lovatt takes Margaret’s willow lady and makes it her very own, as two very feminine wispy figures bow their heads over soft, pink Glasgow roses as their hair sweeps down in Art Nouveau waves amidst a haze of willow green where Rossetti remembers the lost lady love who just may have walked through the willow groves that once whistled in the wind before the concrete pavements of Sauchiehall Street were laid down. The reverse of the classic art nouveau shaped jug features the delicate face of Rossetti’s willow lady love. In truth, it is this design that epitomises the love and wonderful gifts the Mackintosh couple gave to each other and the Applied Arts. In remembrance, and with added poignancy following the tragic second fire at the Glasgow School of Art, the words ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’ are found around the base of the jug.

Ex Tax: £733.33

• Designer: Vicky Lovatt
• Dimensions: H 24.00 x W 9.00 x D 11.00 cm
• Availability: Please allow up to 4 weeks for delivery