Bone and metal embellishments were used for small as well as for larger items of furniture in the home. Often bronze decorative fittings are all that survive of chests and caskets. Decorative table-legs carved of Dorchester shale often took the form of lions' legs, suggesting that non-extant wooden furniture may also have had lions' legs and paws. This design has survived antiquity and still appears on furniture of the present day.

The tiny lion’s paw from Alchester probably supported a small decorative box or casket used for storing and transporting valuables.