Chairs of this general design were described in the Norwich Chair-makers Book of Prices, 1801, as a "Square back chair with a hollow seat". Within the Tables of Extras included in the Book of Prices, various designs of vertical and horizontal splats, often intersected with turned balls or buttons, could be provided. See Dr. B Cotton The English Regional Chair, Woodbridge, 1991, p.218. Standing outside these lists of possibilities, however, these chairs have a rare, if not unique, design feature in the form of the turned central cross rail which is multiple turned, on three centres, to create a curved, decorative shaped back rail. Coincidentally, the turning profile used in this chair is closely similar to certain top rails used in Westmorland Dales chairs. See Dr B Cotton The English Regional Chair, Woodbridge, 1991, p.332, figs. NW38 and NW39.