This splendid tea-table, with scalloped tray fretted with Roman acanthus cartouches, is designed in the mid-l8th Century Roman manner, that was called Modern in the Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Directors, 1754-62, published by Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) of St. Martin's Lane. Appropriate for the tea-ceremony, the torus-moulding wreathing its antique-fluted and acanthus-wrapped baluster comprises a bubbled ribbon-guilloche, while scalloped and bubble-embossed cartouches emerge from the foliated ribbon-scrolls of a tripod 'claw' with bacchic lion-heads and paws. Chippendale's 1762 Director (pl. CXLVII) featured lion-heads in a 1760 pattern for a tripod candle-stand and F. Vivares had included a patriotic lion-head bracket in one of his ornamental designs issued in 1759 (see E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 401).

The superb quality of the carving can be compared with that of George III's lion-guarded 'Grand Medal Case', which was aggrandised in 1761 by the court cabinet-makers John Cobb (d. 1778) and William Vile (d. 1767) of St. Martins Lane.