These six designs for carved ribbon-back chairs by Thomas Chippendale are the original designs for plate no.16 in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1762 ed.). The sheet of designs is signed by Chippendale as well as the engraver ‘Miller’. Tobias and Johann Sebastian Muller were employed by Chippendale as engravers for the Director. Chippendale produced many different designs for splat-back chairs such as these. They would have been ideal for everyday use where they could have been made in large sets and placed within a variety of interiors. Such chairs would have upholstered seats of silk damask or leather, which was a particularly suitable material for the dining room.

Thomas Chippendale was a fashionable designer and cabinet-maker in the eighteenth-century, providing furniture to such famous contemporary figures as David Garrick. His company produced high-quality furniture, including some key masterpieces, but Chippendale's outstanding skill was in design. His pattern-book The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director went through three editions in the 1750s and 60s and inspired trade catalogues and pattern-books from fellow designers. Usually produced by architects, a large, elegant pattern-book was an ambitious project for a craftsman at this time. The Director showed the full range of furniture available in the eighteenth century, and the range of styles that were fashionable. Chippendale created a trademark fusion of rococo style with Chinese and gothic elements, which was the basis of 'English' rococo. His style influenced furniture design in contemporary Europe and colonial America, and had a marked Victorian revival in England. The Director designs were the main source for Chippendale's high reputation until his furniture was first identified in 1906.