The heroic 'klismos' seat, with its broad tablet rail, was popularised by late 18th Century engravings of Grecian or Etruscan vases, and its form was introduced by architects such as Charles Percier (d. 1838). It featured in Percier's 1790s design for an armchair executed by Jacob, and on a similar chair illustrated in Louis-Leopold Boilly's 1800 portrait of the composer Franois-Adrien Boieldieu (see N. de Reynies, Le mobilier domestique, vol. I, Paris, 1987, p. 120). Percier also included it in the 'Art of Painting' vignette for his Receuil de décorations intérieures, 1801 (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Franais du XIX Siècle, 1984, p. 283). The connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1842), an admirer of Percier's work, introduced a similar 'klismos' chair at his Duchess Street mansion, and its engraving appeared in his ornament guide, Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pl. XX, nos. 5 and 6). Hope's chair, fronted by Apollo's sacred griffin monopodia, displayed a choragic laurel wreath on the back beneath a tablet with Grecian ribbon-fret border.

The back profile of this library chair corresponds to Hope's chair, and also relates to a 'bureau' chair or fauteuil d'officier, with front legs of scrolled sword or sabre form, bearing the stamp of the ébéniste Henri Jacob (d. 1825), whose activité ceased in 1806 (see J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Maniére des Maîtres ébénistes Franais au XVIII Siècle, Paris, 1956, p. 247, fig. B).