Pair of Brass and Iron Andirons with Stacked Scroll-Column Uprights on Arched Bases, in the Style of Raymond Subes

This pair of brass and wrought iron andirons exemplifies the distinctive aesthetic that Raymond Subes — the most celebrated French decorative metalworker of the twentieth century — brought to the design of hearth furniture in the Art Deco and early Modernist periods. The defining feature of each piece is its extraordinary upright: a tall shaft composed of a vertical series of identical decorative elements, each comprising paired scrolls or heart-forms that interlock to create a continuous decorative column of great rhythmic energy and visual complexity.

This device of stacking repeated ornamental units to build a composed vertical accent is a hallmark of the Subes approach, seen across the full range of his work from architectural grilles to furniture mounts. The individual elements have a folded, organic quality — somewhere between a foliated capital and a stylised heart motif — that belongs unmistakably to the idiom of French Art Deco metalwork at its most inventive. The material combination of brass and blackened wrought iron creates a subtle two-tone effect of gilded warmth against dark metal that enhances the sculptural complexity of the overall silhouette.

The base of each andiron is resolved with equal confidence: a semicircular arched runner extends forward from the foot of the upright, its clean arc providing a decisive formal contrast to the decorative exuberance of the column above. This arched base brings the piece into close relationship with the tradition of High Gothic and Renaissance ironwork, in which the arched form was a signature configuration. The two andirons are connected by a central cross-brace, completing the functional hearth assembly.

At 42 cm in height, these andirons are well suited to a fireplace of medium or substantial scale, and their extraordinary formal richness makes them equally compelling as decorative objects in their own right. Their attribution to the manner of Subes situates them at the very summit of the French decorative ironwork tradition.