The present table may well have been commissioned to celebrate the marriage of the Rev'd Francis Hewson of Ennismore, Co. Kerry to Margaret, daughter of Lancelot Sandes of Kilcavan, Co. Offaly on 22 September 1773. It has a wonderfully-carved frieze, centred by Venus's shell flanked by scrolling flowers and C-scrolls. Stylistically it bridges the gap between the earlier more curvaceous Irish tables with heavily carved aprons and animalistic cabriole legs, and the more restrained rectilinear tables of the last quarter of the 18th Century. It relates to a tea-table with a similarly-carved frieze that continued down into the legs, that was sold from the Samuel Messer Collection, in these Rooms, 5 December 1991, lot 110. It seems likely that the Messer table is in fact Irish.

The label for Beverly Smyth and Sons of 30 South Anne Street, Dublin refers to the storage for safe keeping of this piece (and other furniture from the same house) during the Irish Civil War 1921-1923.