This suite, comprising twelve open armchairs, six side chairs and a settee, was almost certainly commissioned by George, 4th Earl and later 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley for the newly re-decorated White Drawing Room, shortly following his 1791 marriage to Georgiana, daughter of the 3rd Duke of Ancaster (1714-78). An intimate of the Prince Regent, the 4th Earl was later appointed Lord Steward of the Household in 1812 and these chairs, with their flowered tapestry and white frames enriched with gold in the Louis XVI 'antique' manner, typified the fashionable goût expounded in the 1780s by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV. Following the sale of the Walpole pictures to Empress Catherine the Great in 1779, the Green Velvet Drawing Room, originally hung with green silk-velvet, was rehung with green striped hangings which remained certainly until 1792, when they are recorded in the inventory. It was the Prince Regent's gift of the floral-embroidered white silk wall hangings, however, that no doubt instigated the 4th Earl's commission of this suite

It is, therefore, extremely pertinent that they closely relate stylistically to the oeuvre of François Hervé (fl. 1781-96), 'Cabriole Chair Maker' of John Street. A Parisian emigré menuisier, Hervé supplied much of the seat-furniture for the Prince Regent's Carlton House between 1783-94, under the direction of Henry Holland and the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, who had established himself in London in 1787 and had acquired 'cabriolet' chairs for Carlton House from Georges Jacob (maître in 1765). Amongst the group of related seat furniture, the frames correspond most closely with a pair of armchairs, reputedly from Windsor Castle, that was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 21 April 1994, lot 227

The suite's Aubusson tapestry coverings, depicting trompe l'oeil festoon drapery above 'pastorales' of courting couples, relate to the designs of Jean-Baptiste Huet (d.1811), woven under the direction of M. de Menou (fl. 1780-93)