The chair seat is similar to the Liberty & Co. “Thebes” stool which was inspired by ancient Egyptian furniture and first used on chairs designed by Holman Hunt in 1856-7 and Ford Madox Brown c. 1858. Several versions of chairs with this type of seat were produced by different firms, including Liberty & Co. The “Thebes” stool by Liberty & Co. was closely modelled on the four-legged Egyptian stool at the British Museum (BM 2472) and the Liberty designs were registered at the Patent Offfice in 1884 and were products of Liberty’s Furnishing and Decorating Studio established under Leonard Wyburd’s direction in 1883.
