A pair of related tray-rimmed mahogany stands, also with serpentined and acanthus-wrapped 'claws' terminating in bacchic lion paws, were supplied in 1741 for Lyonel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart's banqueting hall at Ham House, Surrey. They were described by the cabinet-maker Peter Hasert as 'high' stands, but may later have had their pedestals reduced in height from beneath their acanthus-wrapped bulbs (P. Thornton and M. Tomlin 'The Furnishings and Decoration of Ham House', Furniture History Society, 1980, fig. 159). Another pair with paw feet from the collection of the later Frederick Howard Reed were sold in these Rooms, 16 November 1955, lot 187. Similar pedestals, in the antique manner illustrated in James Gibbs's, Books of Architecture, 1728 and 1739, feature on a pair of candle-stands from Raby Castle, Durham (illustrated in O. Brackett and H. Clifford-Smith, English Furniture Illustrated, London, rev. ed., 1950, p. 196, fig. CLXVIII).
The carved decoration on the present lot is similar to that on a pair of candle-stands or torchères sold in the Samuel Messer Collection in these Rooms, 5 December 1991, lot 69.