The table-top is flowered with an 'Apollo'- Palmyran sunflower inlaid in an oval medallion, which was a favoured motif adopted by John Mayhew of the celebrated Soho cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince, who dedicated their The Univeral System of Household Furniture, 1762 to the 4th Duke of Marlborough. The motif appears on a pair of commodes, that are thought to have been supplied by them around 1780 to the Duke of Marlborough, around the time he was also employing the services of the architect John Yenn (d. 1821) (H. Roberts, 'Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough', Furniture History, 1994, pp. 137 and 139, fig. 29). The latter was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 25 May 1972, lot 89, and one of them might be that illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, 1982, pl. 40).