These designs for frames were intended for John Singleton Copley’s ‘The Death of Major Peirson’, which John Boydell commissioned to hang in his gallery at 90 Cheapside. An account of the piece in situ is given in The Morning Herald, 6 August 1784, from which it seems likely that Adam volume 20/253 was executed. The design incorporates three oval portraits by Gilbert Stuart, depicting John Copley, James Heath, and Josiah Boydell (Boydell’s nephew and business partner). Adam volume 20/254, a simpler alternative design, incorporates Copley’s portrait only. See scheme notes.