Modernist Hammered Steel Fireplace Companion Set with Five Tools on Stand

Five slender tools in hammered steel — poker, tongs, shovel, brush, and stand rod — compose this modernist fireplace companion set, each shaft worked to a textured flat-bar profile that catches the light along its length. The tools are topped with small decorative finials and gather into a shared stand, their collective silhouette forming an almost sculptural cluster of vertical lines above a minimal base.

The choice of raw hammered steel, rather than lacquered or chrome-plated metal, gives this set a character quite distinct from the glossier French companion sets of the same decade. The visible working of the metal surface — the slight irregularities and the play of light across the faceted bars — allies this set with a strand of French modernism that drew on artisanal ironwork traditions even while pursuing contemporary forms.

The elongated proportions — the tools reaching 76 cm in height — lend the set an emphatic verticality well suited to the large-scale fireplaces of the period. French designers working in steel for luxury interiors during the 1960s and 1970s produced sets of this type for clients who sought an understated alternative to the more conventional brass or lacquered iron of the period.

Dimensions: W. 26.5 × D. 19 × H. 76 cm.