A set of twelve Regency mahogany and ebony 'Klismos' dining chairs, circa 1815, after a design by Thomas Hope 

These ‘Klismos’ type chairs, with their wildly raked backs, anthemion motifs and reeded sabre legs, betray the influence of the celebrated arbiter of early Regency taste, Thomas Hope (1769–1831). Thomas Hope acquired his celebrated house in Duchess Street in 1799 and quickly set about remodelling it in a style inspired by his Grand Tours of Greece and Egypt. The design of these chairs relates closely to a set of chairs illustrated in Thomas Hope, Regency Furniture and Interior Decoration, p. 26, pl. IV and p. 66, pl. XXIV.