The inspiration for the backs of these chairs is clearly linked to plate five of George Hepplewhite's The Cabinet-maker's and Upholster's Guide of 1788. Available to craftsmen in England and America soon after its publication, the shop that made this pair apparently had access to this purveyor of high fashion. Faithful in overall design, down to the rosettes and delineations of the carved urn, the signatures of these craftsmen include the addition of inlaid patera on the urns and icicles on the stiles and legs.

Undoubtedly made in Connecticut, the construction techniques include through-tenons and rounded corner blocks. These features indicate that the shop that produced this pair was either familiar with furniture from Philadelphia or the products of craftsmen such as Eliphalet Chapin, who trained in Philadelphia and returned to Connecticut with the knowledge of Philadelphia craftsmanship.

A nearly identical armchair made by Kneeland and Adams is illustrated in Bishop, The American Chair, (New Yrk, 1972), fig. 402. Another armchair attributed to this firm is published in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Art from American Collections, (New York,
1963), fig. 25, also in Wallace Nutting, Furniture Treasury, vol. 2, ( ), fig. 2319.