The feather-badge, introduced in the early 1780s in the decoration of the apartments of George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV was popularised in 1788 by the publication of Messrs. A. Hepplewhite and Co.'s The Cabinet-Maker's and Upholsterer's Guide. In that year, a sketch for a related 'Drapery and Feather' back armchair, in the manner of the architect James Wyatt (d. 1813), featured in the Estimate Sketch Books of Gillows of London and Lancaster (see L. Boynton, (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 273). The motif of the bow-tied feathers derives from a pattern in plate 8 of Hepplewhite'e Guide.