The marble-topped tables, with their Vitruvian-wave frieze and truss-capped 'herm' feet enriched with Roman-acanthus foliage and husks, are designed in the George II 'antique' or Palladian style such as the pier-table introduced by the architect William Kent (d.1748) at Houghton, Norfolk, and later illustrated in John Vardy's Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones and Mr William Kent, 1744, pl. 41. However, its various elements, including the French 'picturesque' acanthus-wrapped trophies, emblematic of Peace and Plenty, and comprising flower-festooned baskets perched on shell-like 'pelta' cartouches, had already featured in William Jones, The Gentleman and Builder's Companion, 1739, pls. 28, 42 and 47. This table pattern appears to have been invented in the early 1740s for Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (d. 1758), as part of his aggrandisement of Castle Howard, Yorkshire at the time of his marriage, and no doubt displayed marble slabs acquired during one of his visits to Rome (see: J. Cornforth, 'Castle Howard', Country Life, 4 June 1992, p. 77, fig. 9). The probate inventory for Henry, 4th Earl of Carlisle (d.1759) listed them in the State Bedroom as '2 allabaster tables on carv's and gilt frames'