The design of this circular parlour or drawing room 'Loo table', with its marquetry meallion of ribbon-tied flower-basket and oval plaque insets and its carved dolphin 'tripod' stem terminating in 'Greek-fret' scrolled feet, relates to the Louis XVI revival style of the second half of the 19th century, as illustrated in Lorenzo Booth's Exhibition Book of Original Designs for Furniture, 1864 (see: E. Joy, Furniture Design, Suffolk, 1977, p. 485). The profuse richness of its decoration may indicate that it was intended as an exhibition piece, such as the table with nautical enrichments exhibited by Henry Eyles of Broad Street, Bath, at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Its shaped top was centred by a Chamberlain's Worcester plaque and the massive foliate shaft emerged into four dolphins of even greater ferocity than on the present lot. The table is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and is illustrated in E. Aslin, Nineteenth Century English Furniture, London, 1962, pl. 9. It is even possible that the boxwood carvings were executed by his relation George Eyles, wood carver of Claverton Street, Bath. One of its accompanying chairs, with a porcelain portrait of Queen Victoria in the splat, is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum and is illustrated, ibid, colour plate A. Both the table and a second chair, with Prince Albert in the splat, are illustrated in The Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1977, p.xxvii

Little is known of the career of Henry Eyles. It is just possible that he was a descendant of the T.G. Eyles who is recorded as supplying furniture to the Bath Assembly Rooms in 1771 (V & A archives, see Dictionary of English Furniture-Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p.286). Other Eyles are however recorded in the West Country. A cabinet-maker named William, of Cirencester, had a child baptised in 1813 who may be Henry Eyles (ibid., p.286)