Pair of Chiseled Bronze and Wrought Iron Andirons in the Louis XV Style

These andirons exemplify the enduring French tradition of the chenet en bronze — the ornamental hearth furniture that from the reign of Louis XIV became one of the great showcases of the French foundry’s craft. Executed in the Louis XV taste, each upright presents a tiered baluster-form finial richly chased with bands of foliage and gadrooning, rising above a waisted neck and a base of exceptional elaboration. The base is composed of interlocking C-scrolls and asymmetric rocaille elements cast in openwork — the hallmark vocabulary of the Régence and Louis XV styles — through which light passes to striking decorative effect.

The bronze displays the warm golden tone and crisp chiselled detail characteristic of fine 19th-century French foundry work, produced at a time when workshops across Paris and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine were supplying the great hôtels particuliers with reproductions and interpretations of celebrated 18th-century models. The quality of chasing is notably fine, each scroll and acanthus element cleanly delineated.

The functional back-rests — the bûchiers — are formed in wrought iron, as is customary for chenets of this type; the iron bears the weight of the logs whilst the bronze frontispieces face the room. This traditional division of materials is entirely authentic to the genre.

A pair of quiet authority, these andirons would be at home in any interior that draws upon the classical French decorative vocabulary, from the most formal salon to a well-appointed library.