The immediate origin of this model are those lions visible on a design for a settee in Thomas Hope's Egyptian Room in Duchess Street visible in his influential Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807, pls.8 and 17/4. Those lions derived from the pair of Egyptian lionesses in basalt bought to Rome in antiquity and now at the base of the scalinata on the Campidoglio in Rome. Hope was one of several comtemporary English connoisseurs who were inspired by them. A closely related lion was used in an advertisement by George Bullock in the Liverpool Chronicle, 13 March 1805, p.2, col.3 (see: L. Wood 'George Bullok in Birmingham and Liverpool', George Bullock, Cabinet Maker, Exhibition catalogue 1988, p.43, fig.14). Mrs Coade also produced this model in Coadestone, a pair of which were ordered by Robert Adam for Culzean Castle. Similar giltwood lions were sold in these Rooms, 6 July 1989, lot 1. A single bronze example was offered in Sotheby's London, 6 May 1988, lot 19