Thomas Roberts junior delivered a bill for furniture to Sir Robert Walpole, c. 1729, which primarily relates to Walpole's London houses (though it includes some deliveries to Houghton, including the caffoy for the hangings and chair covers that survive in the Saloon). In the absence of any documentary links to other chair-makers, he is the most likely candidate for the maker of both this suite and the walnut and part-gilt suite, which were probably made around the same time and in the same workshop, as they both incorporate an identical striped twill base cloth (collated between W.2-2002 and W.27-2002). The present suite was seemingly nearing completion in 1731, while the burr-walnut suite, stylistically earlier, could well have been made in the late 1720s -- perhaps in a deliberately old-fashioned style to to suit the pre-existing embroidered bed.