A George II mahogany hall bench restored in the 19th century

The current bench  relates to the 1763 edition of Thomas hippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director which includes as plate XXIV three Designs for Garden Seats, number C illustrating an open armchair, its back and seat each being carved in the form of a shell. Chippendale notes that this design is 'proper for Grottos'. A long seat, its back centered by a shell which 'may be placed in Walks, or at the end of Avenues', is shown on the same plate, it being noted that 'The backs may be cut out of the solid Board, and fixed on the Back Edges of the Seats' as can be see in the construction of the present seat. The S profile of the front legs is based on plate XVII, which illustrates Hall Chairs Chippendale remarking that the designs are for 'Halls, Passages, or Summer-Houses'.

The current seat relates to a number of similar chairs and settees which include a suite which comprising ten chairs and two settees from Tehidy Park, Cornwall, carved with the arms of Basset quartering Pendarves impaled with St Aubyn, a set of ten sides and two armchairs from Tythrop Park, Oxon, with painted crests, and a set of six padouk side chairs and two armchairs, from St. Giles' House, Dorset. Another set is recorded with the arms of Nassn van Zuylestein accollé with Young for William Henry 4^th Earl of Rochford, and a single unprovenanced example is illustrated in A Picture History of Furniture, By Frank Davis, p. 259. All of these have backs and seats in the form of shells, supported on frames and legs of the same profile as the present chairs. The legs and stretchers are variously carved and pierced, all the back legs being plain with pad feet, as in the present examples.

The arms found on the hall bench are those of the Drummond family of Scotland although it is not possible from the arms to establish the exact branch of that family.