These banner-pole drapery curtains were probably commissioned by Don Pedro de Souza e Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmella for the drawing-room of his London house in South Audley Street, soon after his arrival in 1812 as King Joau VI of Portugal's ambassador to the Court of the Prince Regent. They were probably commissioned from George Bullock (d.1818), cabinet-maker and upholsterer, whose "Grecian Rooms" at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly had opened in that year. Their lotus enrichments, and richly tasselled passementerie in the French manner, correspond to that of the drawing-room sofa illustrated, together with these curtains, in Christie's sale on 25 June 1987 lots 174 and 176. A pattern for such banner-pole drapery features above a couch-bed in the 'antique' manner, illustrated in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Makers, Upholsterer and General Artist's Encyclopedia, 1804. A bed inspired by this design was supplied the following year for Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire by Bullock (d.1818) (see George Bullock, H. Blairman & Sons Exhibition catalogue, London, 1988, p.55
The lotus-flower bas-relief is typical of the antique ornament, sketched by the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham (d.1842) during his studies in Rome in the mid-1790's and introduced as a decorative feature by the architect Henry Holland (d.1806)