These two bookcases appear to be part of a larger group all of similar outline but differing in carved details, and the inclusion of mirrored, glazed or panelled elements. Others from this group include a bookcase with outer glazed doors and shell-carved cartouche belonging to Mrs. C.Bouverie-Pusey, formerly of Pusey House, Berkshire, sold Christie's London, 18 October 1951, lot 137 and offered the following year at the Antique Dealer's Fair at Grosvenor House, London (illustrated in the fair catalogue in a trade advertisement for Leonard Knight, p.113). An identical cabinet to the Pusey piece (lacking cartouche finial) was sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1980, lot 170. Another is illustrated in M. Harris & Son, An Abridged Introductory Catalogue of Antique Furniture and Works of Art, n.d., p.44. A closely related example from Langley Park, Norfolk was sold from the Estate of Peter Jay Sharp, Sotheby's New York, 15 January 1994, lot 44 and is illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, 1968, pl. 250. While the cabinet is tentatively attributed to a young Thomas Chippendale (who purportedly worked at Langley), the overall Palladian form and carving of this piece, as well as the others in the group, more closely relates to the work of William Hallett (d. 1767). A labelled cabinet by Hallett dated 1763 from the Colonel Norman Colville collection is illustrated in A. Coleridge, op.cit., pl. 69-71.

The Palladian architecture and carved details on this cabinet, with it's husk-enriched 'Vitruvian' ribbon-scroll, echinous egg-and-dart, beaded-reed string and flowered-ribbon guilloche derive from 'chimmney-piece with overmantel' patterns featured in Isaac Ware's Designs of Inigo Jones and Others (1731). Related bookcase patterns appear in Batty Langley's City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasure of Designs, 1740 (e.g. pl. XCVII, no. 2.)

It seems likely that these cabinets entered the Royal Collection at the time of Queen Mary as they do not appear in any of the earlier inventories of Windsor Castle. Married to George V, Queen Mary was an avid collector from the time she ascended the throne in 1910. She may well have given these bookcases to her daughter, Princess Mary, the Princess Royal (d.1965) for her to use at Windsor Castle. Following the death of her husband, Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (d.1947), Princess Mary was presented with an apartment at St. James's Palace by her brother King George VI, while retaining Harewood House, Yorkshire as her principal residence.