Much of his early furniture, such as the Great Bookcase and the Zodiac settle, was designed for his offices at Buckingham Street and subsequently moved to the Tower House. The Great Bookcase was also part of Burges's contribution to the Medieval Court at the 1862 International Exhibition. Others, such as the Yatman Cabinet, were created as commissions. Later pieces, such as the Crocker Dressing Table and the Golden Bed and its accompanying Vita Nuova washstand, were specifically made for suites of rooms at the Tower House. The Narcissus washstand was originally made for Buckingham Street and subsequently moved to Burges's bedroom at the Tower House. John Betjeman, later Poet Laureate and a leading champion of the art and architecture of the Victorian Gothic Revival, was left the remaining lease on the Tower House, including some of the furniture, by E. R. B. Graham in 1961. He gave the washstand to the novelist Evelyn Waugh who made it the centrepiece of his 1957 novel, "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold", in which Pinfold is haunted by the stand.