The introduction of the marble-topped console-table with plinth-supported Roman eagle is generally credited to the artist/architect William Kent (d. 1748), who was appointed Master Mason of King George II's Board of Works in 1726. Fighting eagles, perched on a console table, featured in his illustrations for Pope's 1727 translation of Homer's Iliad. The earliest surviving illustration of such a table, accompanying a sconce or pier-glass, featured on the 1739 printed bill-head of Francis Brodie (d. 1782), cabinet-maker of Edinburgh (see: Furniture History Journal, Leeds, 1983, pl. 24a).
This table, with an acanthus-enriched and Vitruvian-waved frieze and a double-stepped plinth with shell-encrusted rockwork, relates to the pair of tables from Viscountess D'Abernon's collection, sold in these Rooms, 27 January 1955, lot 132. The latter's eagles also supported the frame on their folded, rather than outstretched, wings.
A related pair of tables from the Mona Bismarck Collection was sold by Sotheby's Monaco, 30 November 1986, lot 812.

The table formed part of the collection of C. R. Rotch (1882 - 1962). It was listed in the 1924 inventory of his house, The Elms, Teddington, and was described as being of the 'highest quality', when illustrated by the celebrated furniture historian R. W. Symonds (d. 1958) in his article, 'English Eagle and Dolphin Console Tables', Antiques, October 1930, p. 296. Claude Rotch's associated with the Victoria & Albert Museum's furniture department dated back to 1912, when he lived in Pall Mall, and his bequest to the museum in 1962 was described by the authorities as 'The most remarkable single gift of English Furniture ever presented to the Museum'.