Previous to the invention of the sideboard by Shearer, and its immediate predecessor, the combination of side-table and pedestals of the brothers Adam, the side-table proper had reached a position of very considerable importance in the hands of the architect-designers of the first half of the eighteenth century. In the hands of such designers as William Kent they had become very magnificent articles of furniture, carved and gilt, with human and animal figures, mythological monsters, flowers, fruit, etc., with tops of rare marbles. These tables were used as serving tables, and the name points to their origin in the seventeenth century. Milton and others speak of the sideboard in this connection, but in doing so are evidently using the word "board" in its old meaning as a table (A. Saxon bord), thus meaning a side-table, not what is now meant by the word "sideboard." During the second half of the eighteenth century side-tables of very elegant design and elaboration were made for the drawing-room.