The Etruscan-black and Grecian-scrolled and reeded bergère with its bronze enrichments is designed in the antique pattern nominated a 'Herculanium' in Thomas Sheraton's, The Cabinet Dictionary, London, 1803, pl. 7. A closely related chair with voluted arms resting on sphere-capped pedestals was sold by Sir Edgar and Lady Beck in these Rooms, 19 November 1992, lot 55. A pair of chairs, with similar scrolled seats and voluted arms, now at Buckingham Palace, are likely to have been executed by George Smith (d.1826) 'Upholder' to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, 'The Works of Art', Buckingham Palace, New York, 1968, p. 199).

The chair form evolved from the 'Etruscan' chair patterns executed in the 1790's under the direction of the architect Henry Holland (d.1806) (M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, rev. ed., 1965, figs. 9. and 10.) and also relates to the type of 'Grecian' chair illustrated by Rudolph Ackermann in his The Repository of Arts, 1809, (pl. 8), and who no doubt was indebted to George Smith for its pattern (P. Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture and Interiors, Marlborough, 1984, p. 46). The sunflower embossments correspond to those on a Grecian-scrolled chair acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1935 (inv. no. W. 30 - 1935; illustrated in R. Edwards, English Chairs, London, 1951, fig. 113). A further similar chair was sold anonymously, Christie's New York, 19 June 1987, lot 140.