The chair-back with feather-badged escutcheon reflects the elegant chair patterns designed around 1780 and adopted by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV for his Buckingham House apartments, and popularised by Messrs. A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788 (F. Fergusson, 'Wyatt Chairs', Burlington Magazine, July 1977, p. 495, fig. 35). This pattern, with triple festoon-draped loops, reflects the antique style promoted by the architect James Wyatt (d. 1815) and relates in particular to a 'Drapery and feather' pattern in the 1788 sketch-book of Gillow of London & Lancaster (L. Boynton, ed., Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 273, and S. Stuart, 'Gillows of London and Lancaster', Antiques, June 1999, pl. XIX; and C. Claxton-Stevens, 'A Group of Seat Furniture stamped R.E.', Regional Furniture, vol. XII, 1998, pp. 153-159).

The same patterned and painted back appeared on an armchair formerly in the collection of James Thursby-Pelham, sold by a descendant of James Thursby-Pelham, Esq., in these Rooms, 7 July 1994, lot 161, £5,750). A related suite of chairs, formerly at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire has been attributed to the Aldersgate firm of George Seddon Sons & Thomas Shackleton (four of these armchairs were sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 18 April 1996, lot 94).