This small occasional table was decorated by the painter Duncan Grant for the Omega Workshops. Roger Fry founded the workshops in 1913, both to provide work for artists and to try to remove the perceived division between the fine and decorative arts. In the workshop artists produced pieces that were generally anonymous, signed only by the Greek letter Omega. However, when this table came into the Museum, it was recorded as being the work of Duncan Grant.

Omega furniture was either designed by members of the workshops to be made by professional furniture makers, or bought second-hand to paint and resell. This plain table is likely to have been bought second-hand. Roger Fry gave it to Margaret Bulley, who donated it to the Museum in 1934, as part of her collection of early 20th-century decorative art, which was originally displayed at the Bethnal Green Museum. Her collection included many pieces from the Omega Workshops as well as work by other designers.