Caned chairs appeared in England soon after the Restoration of King Charles II, and quickly became popular, being lighter and less prone to dust and pest than their upholstered equivalents, and cheaper too. They were widely recorded in middle-class as well as noble house inventories well into the first half of the eighteenth century. Both the technique and the material (rattan cane or calamus rotang split into long narrow strips) came from Asia. The canes were imported in large quantities by the East India Company to London, where the production of caned furniture was concentrated. Caned chairs were also exported in large quantities, so much so that in France they were known as chaises à l’Anglaise, and in the German states as englische Stühle. They were usually used with a light seat cushion. Unlike upholstered chairs, caned chairs seem to have been produced through a subdivision of piece-work labour by journeymen joiners, turners, carvers (who often stamped their work with initials) and caners.

This example demonstrates a relatively late phase in the design of caned chairs, with the caned back enclosed by a moulded 'frame' with almost no carved decoration, unlike earlier 'banister back' chairs with a separate caned panel set between the turned back uprights.