. "This chair belongs to the large set commissioned by Sir Robert Walpole, England\u2019s first prime minister, for the State Apartment at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. The house was built between 1722 and 1735, and the State Apartment was furnished by about 1732. The seat furniture is carved naturalistically with lion\u2019s masks and legs, and gilded on a ground made gritty with sand. The loose covers are of green velvet, to match the State Bed designed by William Kent (Museum no. W.58-2002). This chair has the remains of a \u2018scarf\u2019 fixed to the outside-back \u2013 a panel of green silk which would originally have been sewn only to the top of the chair. Normally it would have hung down the back, but if somebody should sit in the chair the scarf could be flipped over the front, so as to protect the velvet from hair powder.\nAlthough this set of chairs is very different in style from the suite in the Second State Apartment at Houghton (Museum no. W.9-2002), it may be by the same maker, possibly Thomas Roberts junior. The same rather distinctive striped ticking is used for the upholstery foundation."@en . . .