The distinctive laurel-leaf carving of the legs, the husk-carved seat-rail and proportions of these chairs is closely related to a suite of seat furniture almost certainly supplied c. 1800 to Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, for his Sicilian retreat Villa Favorita (see A. Gonzales-Palacios, Il Tempio del gusto, Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicilie, 1984, vol.I, p.371 and vol. II, pp. 266-267, figs. 611-613). Villa Favorita was originally built for the Sicilian Prince of Jaci, commander of the Royal troop, who left it to the King and his Austrian wife Maria Carolina on the former's death circa 1792. Ferdinand was forced to flee Naples for Sicily in 1798 by the threat of a French invasion. He set about transforming the Villa Favorita with a lavish scheme of redecoration in the fashionable neoclassical and chinoiserie styles. He employed a team of Neapolitan craftsmen which included the furniture makers, Francesco and Emanuele Ghirardi, who may have supplied the suite illustrated in Gonzales-Palacios. This suite was in one of the most richly appointed rooms in the Villa, the Stanza del Trionfo di Bacco or the Stanza dei Pampani, which was decorated with Etruscan painted panels and with murals of the Triumph of Bacchus (op. cit., vol. I, p.371).

A grey-painted and parcel-gilt suite with similarly carved seatrails and overall proportions was sold Christie's London, 18 May 1995, lots 362-365.