Pair of Wrought Iron Andirons by Raymond Subes, French, circa 1940

These andirons, wrought in iron and attributed to Raymond Subes, demonstrate the qualities that made Subes the undisputed master of French decorative ironwork in the first half of the twentieth century. At 31.5 centimetres tall with bars extending 43 centimetres in length, they are pieces of real physical presence — not delicate accessories but objects with weight, authority, and a palpable connection to the forge in which they were made. The surface of hand-forged iron, with its subtle variations in texture and the slight reflectivity of a burnished finish, achieves an effect impossible to replicate by casting or machining: it is the mark of the hammer and the anvil, of heat and skill combined.

Raymond Subes (1893–1970) was trained at the École Boulle and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs before becoming chef d’atelier at the Borderel & Robert foundry in Paris, the house with which his name would remain associated for the whole of his long career. Working in the great tradition of the French serrurier-ferronnier, Subes elevated decorative ironwork to the level of fine art, producing gates, grilles, banisters, lift cages, and interior furnishings for the most ambitious architectural commissions of the Art Déco era: the ocean liners Normandie and Ile-de-France, the Palais de Chaillot, the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, and the grand civic buildings of the 1937 Exposition Universelle. His domestic work — smaller in scale but no less demanding in quality — includes fireplace accessories, furniture mounts, and decorative ironwork for private residences.

The period around 1940 represents a moment of particular interest in Subes’s oeuvre. The triumphant virtuosity of the high Art Déco years had by this point distilled itself into a quieter, more architectural authority: the decorative exuberance of the late 1920s giving way to forms that were cleaner, more sculptural, more aligned with the modernist sensibility that was increasingly reshaping French design. A pair of andirons made at this moment bears witness to that transition — rooted in the mastery of the forge but shaped by an eye that had absorbed the lessons of abstraction.

In fine condition. Works by Subes are held in the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and are regularly sought by collectors and institutions internationally. A signed or attributed Subes fireplace accessory represents a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of genuine art-historical significance for domestic use. Height: 31.5 cm. Bar length: 43 cm. Depth: 47 cm.