One of the staff, Stanley G Cox (1912-1999), who had worked for Worth for several years in Hanover Square, bought them in September 1936 together with several other items for £2 and they have remained in the family ever since, first at their home in London until 1982 and later at Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Mr Cox’s association with Worth had been an interesting one and had started back in January 1908 when his mother, Mlle Marguerite Jeanne Fouillard, also known as Martha, was employed as a milliner by Paquin, a rival fashion house in Paris, when she was offered a job as a model at their London establishment, then in Hanover Square. In December 1910, she married Stephen Cox, who was also working for Worth as a stock-keeper, and in later years their son, Stanley, also went to work for the company. After the Second World War, he became general manager and company secretary to Hardy Amies, couturier, until retirement in 1976.

Stanley Cox’s family inherited the chairs in 1999 and on learning of the existence of the Worth Gallery in Bourne, it was decided to present them for permanent display, donated by John and Rosemary Cox, Colin Cox and Elizabeth Hemming (née Cox), and Mrs Hemming delivered them to the Heritage Centre in South Street after a car journey from her home in Salisbury in October 2010.