Pair of Modernist Cast Iron Andirons of Anthropomorphic Figural Form, by Raymond Subes

This exceptional pair of cast iron andirons, attributed to Raymond Subes (1893–1970), exemplifies the master ironworker’s genius for investing the functional object with sculptural power and poetic invention. Each piece is worked from a flat cast iron plate cut into a bold anthropomorphic silhouette — a closed circular loop forming the head, angular spreading shoulders extending at mid-height, and broadly splayed feet providing a stable base. The result reads simultaneously as a stylised human figure, an ancient glyph, and a piece of pure abstract sculpture, demonstrating Subes’ characteristic capacity to transcend the merely decorative.

Raymond Subes, who studied at the École Boulle and became one of the most celebrated French ironworkers of the twentieth century, was known throughout his career for his ability to imbue ferrous metals with an austere elegance combining modernist formal discipline with echoes of the archaic. His andirons cut from flat plate — a technique that allowed him to translate drawing directly into sculptural form — are among the most sought-after of his fireplace accessories. The flat silhouette technique lends each piece an almost heraldic clarity, and these examples with their closed loop finials and symmetrically splayed feet are characteristically Subes in their formal rigour and their ambiguous figuration.

The anthropomorphic reading of the form is inescapable: the loop-head, the shoulder-wings, the planted feet recall the primitive idols of antiquity as much as they do the refined vocabulary of Art Déco and early modernist design. This quality of double resonance — simultaneously ancient and modern, archaic and sophisticated — is precisely what makes Subes’ fireplace accessories so compelling, and so distinctly of their moment in the history of French decorative arts.

In very good overall condition, the cast iron retaining its original matte black finish with the even, powdery patina of age. A pair of andirons of the highest artistic quality and museum calibre, ideal for the collector of significant French twentieth-century ironwork.