A pattern for a related sideboard-pedestal, embellished with a hollow-cornered panel and supporting a lidded wine-krater vase with fluted rim, featured in Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 2nd ed., 1778, pl.XXXIV, fig.129. The use of the vases 'to hold water for the use of the butler, or iced water for drinking' is discussed in Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co's, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, (pls.35 and 36). The flame finial features on an urn design in the 1788 Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows of London and Lancaster (L. Boynton, (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs, 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig.187), while the same bacchic lion-mask handles feature on a pair of pedestal-supported vases in the Victoria & Albert Museum (D. Fitz-Gerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, no.92, inv. no. W.38-1934) and another pair sold by T.C. Litler-Jones, Esq. in these Rooms, 14 December 1967, lot 167. The latter pair was formerly at Lulworth Castle, Dorset.
A similar pair of urns and pedestals was sold anonymously, Christie's New York, 24 April 1992, lot 122.