A drawing attributed to Duncan Phyfe that accompanied an 1816 bill to Philadelphia banker Charles N. Bancker, illustrates a chair with identical croisillion scroll back with central rectangular tablet (see lot 53); this X-form back is based upon the 1802 London Chairmakers' and Carvers' Book Prices (pl. 3, fig. 5), which outlines the labor costs for chairs with "ANGULAR SPLATS IN COMMON HOLLOW BACKS," option five being for a "GRECIAN Cross, lapp'd in the middle, and tenon'd at the ends....0.0.4 [four pence] (see lot 79)." Thomas Hope, in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration also illustrated a criosillion back (pl. xi, fig. 3, 1807), which remained popular for the next two decades, appearing in La Mésangère's 1827 plates from Meubles et Objets de Gout (plate 623).

Duncan Phyfe, Honoré Lannuier, and other known and unknown cabinetmakers produced chairs with croisillion backs. The figured mahogany tablets in the crest and legs and the lightwood veneer in the stiles add a dimension of contrasting woods employed by craftsman such as Lannuier. The distinctive carved lion's feet also add a level of sophistication as well as expense to this set of chairs. This set is the finest example of this form, surpassing related chairs in execution, design, overall appearance and rarity of number. This may be the set of two arm and six sidechairs illustrated in Antiques, vol. 83, no. 1 (January, 1963): 65. A related set with two arms and six sidechairs is illustrated in, American Antiques from Isreal Sack Collection, vol. I, no. 3 (November, 1958), no. 144, p. 46.

A simpler version of a single arm chair, yet with the same double-cyma arms, is illustrated in Cornelius, Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe (New York, 1923), plate VII. A croisillion back chair with hairy-leg and lion's paw feet in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is illustrated in McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency (New York, 1939), pl. 159.