John Vanderbank was head of the Great Wardrobe workshop in London from 1689 to 1717, with responsibility for weaving and repairing tapestries for the British crown. During the early 1690s, he provided tapestries "designed in the Indian manner" for Queen Mary's apartments at Kensington Palace (the queen was an avid collector of Chinese porcelain). Thereafter, he appears to have developed a variation of these designs—of which The Concert is typical—for commercial sale, which were woven many times in the early 1700s.