These designs can be dated to circa 1915. In that year Mackintosh arrived in London where he was to remain till 1923. His first weeks in the capital were spent at a Summer Meeting at King's College held on the theme of 'The War': Its Social Tasks and Problems' and organised by the Scottish scientist, sociologist, town planner and philosopher, Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). Geddes, a friend of the Mackintoshes in Scotland, undertook to provide temporary accommodation and occupation for his compatriot. It is likely that the plans commissioned from Mackintosh during the conference and in the following weeks were related to Geddes' current town planning surveys in India. Indeed later in 1915 Mackintosh was invited to Bombay or Calcutta by the Indian Government to work on reconstruction schemes, an invitation surely arranged through Geddes. Whether conceived as demonstration drawings, or as a proposal for a reconstruction scheme, these drawings must be related to Geddes' work. Furthermore a small group of stylistically related architectural drawings is housed in the major Geddes Archive at Strathclyde University, Glasgow. These are ascribed to Geddes' Indian projects and dated to between 1915 and 1918.

That these two designs were drawn concurrently is supported by the evidence of the works themselves. Mackintosh mistitled each and physically had to cut out and transfer the correct title to the appropriate drawing.

Mackintosh's rigidly symmetrical designs use a simplified classical vocabulary. Characteristically ornament is minimal, though the inventive forms of the tapered colums in the Office block and the detailing of the three carved figurative panels in the Warehouse block acknowledge the probable Indian context. The designs also contain references to Mackintosh's Glasgow work, for example a version of the central balcony from the north facade of Glasgow School of Art is incorporated into both designs. Indeed the proportions and massing of the Office block is related to that of the School of Art. The detailing of the central area of this block, with its inventive use of triangular forms and capricious handling of classical detailing, recalls the facade of Mackintosh's Daily Record Buildings, Glasgow (1901) and anticipates the geometric decorative schemes for 78 Derngate, Northampton of 1916.

These drawings extend our knowledge of Mackintosh's creative work during the poorly-documented London period. They show him working for the first time on a new scale - that of the urban streetscape; designing probably for an overseas location for the first time; and working in a style which contains references to the Glasgow work while anticipating the decorative designs of the London period.

We are grateful to Pamela Robertson of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow
for her help in cataloguing this lot.



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