These chairs directly follow a design for a 'parlour chair' in Robert Manwaring's The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion of 1765, pl. 5 (right chair). A second edition of the aforementioned guide was published in 1775, reflecting the popularity and probable large volume of subscribers to this publication, although there is no existing record that can reveal the identities of these subscribers. As always, it is difficult to attribute an executed piece of furniture to a specific cabinet-maker or workshop based only on a published pattern, without documentary evidence linking the object to the maker. Information about Manwaring, including the statement that he was a 'cabinet-maker with his own premises in London', is derived from his own publications and there are no documented works of furniture from his workshop. Nevertheless, the boldness of his designs, as represented by these chairs, support his claim that 'they are actually Originals, and not pirated or copied', adding 'there are very few designs advanced, but what he has either executed himself, or seen completely finished by others'. A set of six chairs of the same pattern were sold Christie's, New York, April 16, 2002, lot 45. For further information see P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, pp. 52-53, pl. 179.