Horace Walpole's 'glorious fowl' in marble, acquired from the Baths of Caracalla in the 1740s may have provided the prototype for this eagle (see: G. Jackson-Stops, The Treasure Houses of Britain, 1985, no. 244). A pier-table in the William Kent manner with related ear-cornered plinth and Vitruvian-scrolled cornice but supported by an eagle with displayed wings was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1945 (see: D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, no. 27