The arms are those of James, 3rd Duke of Montrose, born in 1755. He was a Lord of the Treasury 1783-1789 and Master of the Horse 1790-1795 and again 1807-1821. He was Lord Chamberlain of the Household 1821-1827 and again 1828-1830 and Captain General of the Royal Company of Scottish Archers 1824-1830. Early in his political career he had been instrumental in the restoration of national dress to the Highlanders, prompting the following passage:

Thy patriot zeal has bared their parts nehind
To the keen whistling of the wintry wind

He married twice, first to Jemima Elizabeth, 1st daughter of John, Earl of Ashburnham. She died in childbirth aged 24 in 1786 and, as his second wife, he married Maria, daughter of the 4th Duke of Manchester in 1790. Wraxall, in his Memoirs, speaks of him thus: "few individuals, however distinguished by birth, talents, interests or public services, arrived at greater honors under the reign of George III ... he possessed a ready elocution, sustained by all the confidence in himself necessary for addressing the House." Another side of him is shown in the scurrilous tete-a-tete portraits in Town and Country circa 1790, where he is referred to as 'the Favorite of the Fair". He died aged 81 in 1836.

A pair of wine coolers of similar form by Thomas Robins, 1807, was sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 20, 1970, lot 210.