This pair of footstools descended in the family of Luman Reed with a history of craftsmanship in the shop of Duncan Phyfe. Two pair of footstools, or tabourets, are listed in Reed's 1836 inventory, one pair is in the Drawing Room and the other is in the Parlour, one of which may be this set.

Two other pair of footstools are associated with Duncan Phyfe. Phyfe made one pair for Thomas Cornell Pearsall with reeded stiles, legs and caned seat; and another with ebonized and reeded medallions similar to this pair (see McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and The English Regency (New York, 1939), plates 276, 145.