The caned bergere of this form, named the 'Ashburnham' chair, features in Gillows 1803 Estimate Sketch Book, no. 1721 (Westminster Public Library). Sketches of similar chairs appear in the firm's early 19th Century room plans preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Its baluster arm evolved from a chair pattern illustrated in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793, p. VI, and its reeded back and bead-edged tablets reflect Gillows' early 19th Century Grecian style. The invention of such 'Library Reading Chairs' with book-rest fitments was credited to Morgan and Saunders of the Strand when illustrated in the September 1810 edition of R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts. One such chair, reputed to have belonged to Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, was sold in these Rooms, 27 February 1992, lot 58.
A pair of very closely related bergeres which had been supplied by Gillows to Beamish Park, Co. Durham, were sold by Mrs R.D. Shafto, in these Rooms. 21 September 1995, lot 140.