The oak seats are conceived in the fanciful antiquarian manner, promoted by George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1808. Their frames' quatrefoil-flowered seats and cusp-arched tablets reflect the old English medieval or Gothic style, while their patera-capped form derives from a Roman marble altar, illustrated in C.H. Tatham's Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Architecture, 1799, pl. 46.