The Guard Chamber at Hampton Court was the first in a sequence of carefully laid out State Rooms. During the seventeenth century, William III's guards slept here when the king was in residence, controlling access to the apartments within. Like other guard chambers in this period, the room was fitted with an array of arms to present a dramatic impression of political power and order. The work was undertaken in 1699 by John Harris, who was also responsible for re-displays at Windsor, St James's Palace and the Tower. Bills to the Board of Ordnance, which paid for the work, show that Harris spent '180 dayes Drawing Designes and placeing [up] the Armes'. Some of the seventeenth-century weaponry had been replaced by newer pieces by the time this watercolour was produced in 1819.