These chairs exemplify the popularitiy of French taste in English furniture in the late 1760s and early 1770s. Leading cabinet-makers such as John Linnell and Thomas Chippendale designed various models for 'French chairs' during this period. The chairs' overall design related to patterns published by Thomas Chippendale in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1762, pl. XXIII.
A set of related chairs with similar moulded frames in the French taste was delivered by Linnell to William Drake at Shardeloes in 1768 (illustrated in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, p. 34, fig. 61).