A PAIR of oak "ladder back" chairs designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and made especially for Miss Cranston's Willow Tearoom in Glasgow are to be sold at auction.

The ebonised oak chairs, dating from 1903 and valued at between £10,000 and £15,000, will go under the hammer on August 13 as part of the Scottish Design sale at Edinburgh's Lyon and Turnbull auctioneers.

John Mackie, director and head of decorative arts at Lyon & Turnbull, said: "The chairs were used by Mackintosh to divide the space in the tea rooms and form an intimate environment within a much larger space. The chairs' design is informed by vernacular 'ladder back' chairs from the past; however Mackintosh has taken this traditional chair form and made it his own."

The chairs come from an anonymous seller in London.