This table, with hinged and ratchet-supported top accompanied by a fitted writing-drawer, was named table à la Tronchin in honour of the Swiss doctor Tronchin (d. 1781), who recommended the use of such a table for reading or writing while standing. The cabinet-maker Etienne Avril (maître in 1774) signed a related table now in the Musée Tavel-Delacour, Pontoise, which also features a leather-lined top and slides as well as hermed feet terminating in brass plinths and castors (N. de Reynies, Le Mobilier domestique, Paris, 1987, vol. II, no. 4289).

This table is reputed to have belonged to Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (d. 1765), who was appointed Prime Minister in 1855, and was probably sold from Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, in the house sale of 12-14 March, 1923.