This table top was made in 1887, in the work shop of Ali Muhammad Isfahani in the tilemakers quarters at Shahzadeh Abdul Azim gate, Tehran. An inscription in the centre states that it was commissioned by Major General Sir Robert Murdoch Smith, Director of the Persian Telegraph Department from 1865 to 1888, who also acted as an agent of the South Kensington Museum (as the Victoria and Albert Museum was then known), acquiring objects in Iran for their collection.

There is an identical table top in the Ceramics and Glass Museum in Tehran. Ceramic table tops have a long Western tradition. They were generally made in the form of single plaques placed on wood supports either of four legs or on a central pedestal. They were particularly fashionable in France; some of the grandest were made at the Sèvres porcelain manufactory and were often given as diplomatic gifts.

The top is formed of eight shaped panels around a central round medallion. Each illustrate scenes from Firdowsi's epic the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings. The central panel features the duel of the hero Rustam with his enemy Ashkabus, while those arranged around the outside feature other famous characters who are identified by name. The source of the narrative scenes was probably coloured lithograph illustrating mid-19th century editions of the <i>Shahnameh</i>. The introduction of the lithographic process in Iran in the 1840s enabled the great Iranian classics to be printed relatively cheaply and easily circulated.