Designed in the 'antique' manner these side chairs are closely related to Gillow's 'Stewart Pattern' in their Estimate Sketch Book for 1801, named after Sir John Shaw Stewart of Ardgowan, who commissioned the suite illustrated in Gillow chairs and Fashion Exhibition Catalogue, Blackburn 1991, pp. 22-3. They are similar to Thomas Sheraton design for an armchair published in his Cabinet Dictionary of 1803, pl. 3. The ultimate source for the design, however, was the 'Etruscan' designs fo antiquity, possibly as translated by Georges Jacob in 1787 for Marie-Antoinettes Laiterie at Rambouillet, described as de femme nouvelle du genre étrysqye.
These chairs are listed in the Drawing-Room, together with the open armchairs (lot 94) in the 1840 Inventury Fourteen white and gold armchairs with loose cushions to match eight single with caned backs and seats