The present tables may have been part of a suite of gilt-gesso pier furniture, an arrangement typical of the 1720s. James Moore (circa 1670-1726) and John Gumley (1691-1727) were recorded as having supplied several gilt side tables for British royal palaces, all of which were accompanied with a pair of torchères ensuite, often as well as a pier mirror. Much like the present tables they would have been carved from pine, gessoed and watergilded. The punched ground of the gilding and strapwork top would have caught the glimmer of flickering candlelight, and the association of pier tables with mirrors heightened this effect. This was certainly the case at Erddig where pier mirrors and sconces lined the east side of the ground floor, each with a table ensuite, creating a dramatic enfilade arrangement along the length of the house. It is possible that the present tables were part of a similar arrangement.

At the top of each leg is an ‘Indian mask’, so-called because of their plumed headdresses, though this is something of a misnomer. The motif was first adopted by English furniture makers around 1718, and Adam Bowett suggests (A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture: 1715-1740, 2009, p. 213) they entered the repertoire through access to published works by French artists and designers of the Baroque such as Jean Berain (1640-1711). The motif can be traced further to the Italian Renaissance and the rediscovery of the Domus Aurea in the late fifteenth century, where masked grotesques were originally seen and adopted by artists such as Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564) and the studio of Raphael.

The masks evidence the lasting influence of the French Baroque on English furniture makers of the early eighteenth century, as does the scrolled acanthus decoration and florid strapwork. However, the present tables relate equally to the burgeoning influence of export lacquer furniture. Between 1697 and 1702 over one thousand lacquer ‘tea tables’ were imported per annum, their form was most often rectangular with cabriole legs, much like the present table. Although this model was itself European, the double-radiussed or ‘re-entrant’ corners of present table relate directly to export lacquer furniture, and their original purpose was likely to prevent chips to delicate lacquer corners. Similar re-entrant corners appear on a carved and gilt table made for Henry Arundell, 6th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1694–1746) and his wife Eleanor Everard, one of the most striking tables of this form.