A collection of furniture by the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh has fetched �3.18m at auction.

One of the star attractions, a jewel-encrusted writing bureau, was auctioned for �996,000 at Christie's in London.

The piece was bought by Glasgow Museums, the National Art Collections Fund and the National Trust for Scotland.

It will be displayed at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum for eight months of the year and in Hill House, in Helensburgh, for the remaining four.

Demand for Mackintosh designs remains high

The bureau was designed in 1904 for the Glasgow publisher Walter Blackie.

An ebonised centre table, which was originally from Mr Blackie's Hill House home, but later owned by the pop artist Andy Warhol, was auctioned for �336,650.

Pieces from the private home of Kate Cranston, who was regarded as one of Mackintosh's most important patrons, were among other lots.

The most notable was a high-backed chair from Miss Cranston's famous Argyle Street Tea Rooms in Glasgow, which was sold for �380,650.

'Internationally recognised'

Glasgow City Council also purchased two chairs and an oak card table, originally from Miss Cranston's home, with funding from the National Trust for Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Arts collection Fund.

Liz Cameron, convener of the council's cultural and leisure services committee, said: "These pieces are internationally recognised and will allow the city to present a great legacy to the widest possible public."

Two armchairs are being sold in a separate auction in Edinburgh.

The oak chairs which date back to 1897, are expected to fetch �120,000 at auction by Lyon and Turnbull.

They were made for the smoking and billiard rooms at the Tea Rooms.