This chair has long been thought to be of Annapolis manufacture, and several characteristics, the details of the carving, the broad proportions, the saddle seat, and the type of molded leg, support this attribution. Since the original secondary woods are the most crucial evidence and are no longer extant, the possibility remains that the chair is English. Many English chairs of this general type were imported to Maryland in the years immediately before and after the Revolution, and served as prototypes for extremely similar Maryland-made chairs. To cloud the issue further, most cabinetmakers working in Annapolis before the Revolution were from England, and several proudly noted their London training in their advertisements.

This chair's history states that it was used in one of the grandest of the mansions from Annapolis's "Golden Age," the Brice House. Built at extraordinary expense between 1768 and 1773 by Colonel James Brice (1764 - 1802), this immense five-part brick dwelling has been called the most magnificent colonial home in Annapolis. Colonel Brice's account books record the acquisition of furniture for the house in the 1770s through the early 1780s both from local craftsmen and abroad.