PAIR OF ANDIRONS "WITH ARABESQUE CHILDREN" IN THE LOUIS XVI STYLE

A pair of gilt bronze and patinated "arabesque children" andirons. They are decorated with a putto warming up in contact with the flames and whose lower part of the body gives rise to acanthus scrolls joining the connection of the andirons, composed of a flaming incense burner supported by goat heads. Based on the model of Jean-François Forty, an Italian ornamentalist, made in bronze by the founder Jean-Noël Turpin in 1785.

19th century, Circa: 1850

Dim: W:30cm, D:7cm, H:32cm.

Documentation :

There are several examples of these neoclassical andirons. One is kept in the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris. Another example was in the grand flats of the Château de Versailles before the Revolution. In 1786, Marie-Antoinette had Jean Hauré, supplier to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, deliver a fire of this model bought from Turpin for the salon des nobles de la Reine, which was being refurbished. These andirons were then surrounded by corner pieces and chests of drawers by Jean-Henri Riesener.

Bibliography :

N. Gasc, "Le musée Nissim de Camondo", Paris, Albin Michel, 1991, pp. 2 and 59.