Supplied to Sir Robert Walpole, later 1st Earl of Orford (d. 1745), these chairs are two from the suite of 'Eight Chairs' originally placed in the 'Cov'd or Wrought Bedchamber' and 'Fiveteen chairs Two Settees' in the 'Cabinett' at Houghton. Retaining their green silk-velvet upholstery, emblematic of Venus and appropriate for the Bedchamber of the second State Apartment, these chairs were most probably supplied by the Roberts family of the 'Royal Chair', Marylebone Street. Following Thomas Roberts' death in 1714, the post of carver and joiner to the Royal Household was succeeded to by Richard Roberts, presumably his son, who continued in the Marylebone Street premises until his move to Air Street by 1728. As G. Beard and C. Gilbert surmised in the Dictionary of English Furntiure Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 753-4, the fact that Sir Robert's enormous debt in the 1729 accounts is addressed to a 'Thomas Roberts' (#1,420 8 7½d. 'less #200' by cash) is most probably explained by Richard's death (he disappears from the Household Accounts at this time) and the business being taken over by a second Thomas, a son or nephew

With their foliate headed channelled cabriole legs and distinctive spreading hoof feet, these chairs are closely related to that upholstered with Italian cut velvet and supplied circa 1714-15 for Sir William Humphreys, Lord Mayor of London (illustrated in R. Edwards, op. cit., p. 135, fig. 75). Stylistically these chairs predate Kent's interior, and they are almost certainly survivals from Sir Robert's earlier house at Houghton, which he began to remodel in 1716 and finally razed to the ground, to start afresh, in 1722. If this is the case Sir Robert must have upholstered them for reuse in his splendid new house in the green velvet of the State Apartments

A set of six chairs en suite, sold at Sotheby's London, 29 January 1960, lot 117, are almost certainly part of the Houghton set. Of those, one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (W.15 - 1960), another is at Temple Newsam, Leeds (illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, I, p. 75-6, no. 57), a pair are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and a further pair are in the Melbourne Art Gallery, Australia. They are apparently constructed identically, save for the close-nailed border rather than trim. Of Sir Robert's original suite of twenty-two side chairs, two settees and one easy chair, four side chairs appear to be lacking in the inventory of 1792 although they may well be recorded elsewhere in the house listed as 'chairs' with no identifying features noted. However, the inventories of 1888, 1904 and 1911 all record the complete set of twenty-two side chairs. Including the present pair and lot 127, twenty side chairs remain at Houghton. It is therefore difficult to determine whether the further two pairs may have been elsewhere in the house, or whether the set may have been enlarged

In the 1745 inventory, 'Eight Chairs' from this suite are recorded in the 'Cov'd or Wrought Bedchamber' and a further 'Fiveteen Chairs Two Settees' were in the 'Cabinett'. In 1792, 'Twelve walnut tree Chairs stuffed & covd with green velvet gilt frames & blue/tammy cases A pair of Sophas finished to correspond' are listed in 'No. 43 Cabinet Room', while 'No. 44 Bedchamber adjoining' was furnished with 'An Easy Chair walnut tree and gilt frame and cushion covered with rich green velvet & serge cases Six Chamber Chairs stuffed & covered with ditto to correspond & serge cases'

The settee from the suite is illustrated in P. Macquoid, op. cit., fig. 195, in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, op. cit., III, p. 81, fig. 23 and in R. Edwards, op. cit., p. 448, fig. 17