The table, with its pair, formed part of the furnishings of the Georgian mansion at Highclere, Hampshire, which was inherited in 1811 by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon (d. 1833). They are likely to have been enlarged at this date. However, the eagles and elements of their plinth no doubt originated as pier-tables, commissioned by The Hon. William Herbert (d. 1757), whose brother Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, was King George II's 'First Lord of the Bedchamber'. Lord Pembroke shared the passion of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, for Palladian architecture, and commissioned the celebrated 'sphynx' furniture (now at Wilton House) which was executed to the designs of the architect William Kent (d. 1748), Master Carpenter at the Royal Board of Works ('The Treasure Houses of Britain', Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, 1985, no. 162). Kent, who is credited with the invention of the eagle-supported table, may have also designed the Highclere tables. Such eagles featured in conjunction with a console-table in his tail-piece illustration for Alexander Pope's 1725 edition of Homer's Odyssey (M. Wilson, William Kent, London, 1984, p. 119). Their vigorous carving relates to the work of Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) cabinet-maker at the 'Golden Spread Eagle', Long Acre, who supplied goods to the Royal Palaces from 1729 (G. Beard, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986).