Known under a variety of names such as a folding 'airing', 'drying' or 'clothes' horse, it is also described as a 'folding chamber clothes horse' in The Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices, 1793 (see reprint in Furniture History, 1982, p. 209). This clothes-horse has a stretcher tray between plinth-supported standards in the manner of one at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire (see P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev ed., 1954, p. 344, fig. 1).
Related folding clothes-horses that were supplied in 1813 by Gillows to William Powlett, 2nd Baron Bolton for Hackwood Park, Hampshire, were sold from Hackwood, Christie's house sale, 20 April 1998, lots 374-377.