In his design of the first floor rooms of Spencer House, James Stuart took responsibility for every detail from fixtures to furniture. The set of five chairs formed an integral part of the design of the Painted Room, arguably the most important interior at Spencer House and among the earliest fully-developed neoclassical interiors in Europe. The bold design of the chairs employed decorative details derived from ancient architectural motifs and corresponded to other aspects of the room’s design. For example, the flutes on the seat rail compliment those on the door architraves, which were derived from the frieze of a ruin at Salonica called the Incantada (Weber Soros, p. 434). The six chairs stood in the four window recesses and on either side of the main door into the room. In the 1772 publication Tour Through the Southern Counties, Arthur Young describes the Painted Room, noting that ‘the frames of the tables, sofas, stand etc. are all carved and gilt in the same taste as the other ornaments of the room, rich but elegant’ (p. 114). Purchased in 1977 from Earl Spencer [RF/1976/2628]. On long-term loan to Spencer House since 1993.