This form of parlour pier-table with hinged leg and ingenious fitments, serving as tea, card and writing-table, earned itself the name 'Harlequin' after the Comedia del Arte's master-of-disguises. Its pattern, including sprung-hinged flaps for propping up the writing-box features on a George II cabinet-maker's design-sheet alongside fifteen other functional hinged and ratcheted items, ideally suited to West End apartments. The sheet, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E2320-1889) bears the name 'Potter London', who may be identified with the Thomas Potter listed in partnership with John Kelsey in a 1738 account at Stourhead, Wiltshire (see: G. Beard and C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1986). Potter's inscription on the design-sheet appears on a medal-cabinet that derives from that now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (see: D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1969, fig.37).

A related brass-inlaid games-table attributed to John Channon was offered by the Executors of the late Colonel William Stirling of Keir in these Rooms, 15 November 1990, lot 59.

A related table sold in these Rooms, 25 February 1993, lot 117.