The design corresponds to patterns for 'Candle Stands' published in Thomas Chippendale's The Director, 1762, pl. CXLVI. An eighteenth century pair of this design in black and gilt lacquer was sold by the Trustees of the late Mrs. U. M. G. Leavett-Shenley, Christie's, London, 13 January 1977, lot 111 (see C. Musgrave, 'The Holt, Upham: Hampshire Home of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Leavett-Shenley', The Connoisseur, June 1962).