This chair may originally have formed part of the furnishings commissioned by Sir Peter Byrne Leicester, Bt. (d.1770) for the Palladian mansion Tabley House, Cheshire, which was built in the 1760's by the York-based architect John Carr (d.1807). Various Yorkshire crafstmen worked at the house, and Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) the celebrated cabinet-maker of St. Martin's Lane and a native Yorkshireman is also reputed to have been employed by Sir Peter (see the Tabley House bed illustrated in R. Edwards, ed., The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol.1 p.63, and sold Christie's London, 16 November 1989, lot 77). This pattern of seat furniture, serpentined in the 'French' manner was chosen for the Tabley drawing-room and library. This pattern chair closely corresponds to a set of fourteen armchairs supplied by Chippendale Dumfries House, Ayreshire, Scotland in 1759 (see C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, vol.II, 1978, p.86, pl.139). Other chairs of the Tabley House pattern include one sold Christie's London, 24 February 1994, lot 189, another sold Phillip's London, 24 November 92, lot 71 and a side chair belonging to David Style, Esq., Wateringbury Place, Kent, sold Christie's London, 1-2 June 1978, lot 549.