These diminutive armchairs, with their distinctive heart-shaped backs and 'shepherd's crook' armrests, are likely to belong to a group of walnut 'dressing chairs' as referred to in contemporary nomenclature from domestic inventories and furniture-maker's bills in the early 18th century (see Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, From Charles II to Queen Anne, Antique collects ors Club, 2002, pp. 188-189). The low backs where possibly conceived to facilitate access to the head and shoulders of the person being dressed or attended to and the curved 'shepherd's crook' armrests would have also been designed with a specific function in mind relating to dress. Two similar examples - one with an upholstered back the other with a wooden back - are illustrated in R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, London, 1929, p. 146, figs. 89 & 90 and a further example is illustrated in Bowett, op. cit., p. 188, pl. 4:91.