Carstairs Campbell was a well known figure in the Scottish art world in the late 19th century, and was a close associate of William Burrell and the architect, Robert Lorimer. His parents were acquainted with Dresser's parents and it is through this connection that Charles Carstairs Campbell came to know Dresser and his work. According to the family, the present chair is remembered as having been exhibited by Dresser at an exhibition in Glasgow at the end of the last century and is believed to have been bequeathed by Dresser to Carstairs Campbell on his death in 1904. The chair is also remembered with original tooled leather upholstery.

Dresser's design for this chair was published in The Technical Educator: An Encyclopaedia of Technical Education London and New York 1870-1872, Vol.1, p.313, in an article entitled Principles of Design IX: Art Furniture - Chairs. The full series of thirty-one articles on design which Dresser was commissioned to write for Technical Educator between 1870 and 1872, were collated in 1783 by its publishers, Cassell, Petier and Galpin, into the single volume Principles of Decorative Design

Cf. Widar Halén, Christopher Dresser, Oxford 1990, p.68, pl.50, fig.23, chair design as illustrated in Principles of Decorative Design