This chair epitomises the romantic neo-classical style combining French, Grecian and Egyptian elements which was promoted by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1831) in the early 19th century as the court style of George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. Hope, whose first language was French, had travelled extensively in Greece and Egypt and was the author of Anastasius, 1819, the tale of a Greek youth seduced by the allure of Egypt. He designed this chair in the Greek klismos form with sphynx-like couchant lioness-supports to the arms, emblematic of sovereignty and power. Replicas of the celebrated Egyptian lionesses of the Campadiglio, Rome provided inspiration for its design, while the back's X-scrolled supports may derive from a tabouret pattern illustrated by his friend Charles Percier in his Recueil de décorations Intérieures, Paris, 1801. In Hope's engraving, the mille-raies flutes to the lioness's plinth and the rosette were omitted. Also, while the armchair is illustrated by Hope with three striated bands around the seat-rail, the single chairs are correctly drawn with only two. The superb quality of this chair with its refined details such as the swag-drapery figuring of the 'tablet' rail, relates to that of the lyre-back chairs sold in these Rooms, 11 April 1991, lot 83.

The carver Peter Bogaert, who was established in Tottenham Court Road in the 1790's, was praised by Hope in Household Furniture, op. cit., and may have assisted a firm such as William Marsh and Thomas Tatham of Mount Street in the execution of the chair.