The chairs fall into the 'elegant' group of 'Feather and drapery' chairs, also known as the 'Princes pattern', produced by Gillows in the 1780s (see S.E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2008, vol. I, pp. 160-163). Among this group were the ten 'elegant mahogany arm'd chairs (feather pattern)…' delivered to Nathaniel Crompton Esq. of Manchester in 1788 and based on a pattern of very close design to the present chairs (reproduced in L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Hertfordshire, 1995, pl. 273). An armchair of this model, possibly one of the Aitken examples, is illustrated in P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture: The Age of Satinwood, London, 1906, vol. IV, p. 185, fig. 168 (the property of Alfred Davis). A further pair of armchairs of this model is illustrated in L. Synge, Mallett Millennium, London, 1999, p. 120, fig. 131.