The present lionesses derive from the pair of Egyptian lionesses in basalt brought to Rome in antiquity, and now at the base of the Scalinata on the Campidoglio in Rome. These Egyptian lionesses inspired a generation of English 18th Century connoisseurs, of whom the most prominent was Thomas Hope. C. H. Tatham illustrated the lion in his Etchings of Ancient and Ornamental Architecture, 1799. Mrs. Coade also produced this model in her celebrated clay-based 'Coade stone', a pair of which were ordered by Robert Adam for Culzean Castle.
An identical pair in bronze were sold here 4th June 1991, lot 195.