The herm-legged table, with its exotic African 'rosewood' (milletia laurentii) veneer and hollowed corner, is conceived in the French antique taste of the 1770s. Its richly-figured top displays a sunflowered pattera medallion enclosed by a golden ribbon edged with 'Etruscan-black' ebony. It may have been commissioned by Sir John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon (d. 1838) following his marriage in 1772 to Elizabeth Surtees; and later brought to Eldon, Dorset following his acquisition of the estate in 1806, while serving as Lord Chancellor. However, its design harmonises with an Encombe marble chimneypiece, with hermed and pattera-enriched Ionic pilasters, so it might have been introduced by John Pitt, M.P. (d. 1787), around the time that his picturesque villa featured in Hutchins' History of Dorset, 1774. The table is illustrated in situ by Arthur Oswald, 'Encombe, Dorset - II', Country Life, 31 January 1963, p. 214, fig. 2.