PAIR OF LOUIS XVI STYLE "ARABESQUE CHILDREN" ANDIRONS

Pair of "arabesque children" andirons in gilded and patinated bronze. They are adorned with a putto warming up in contact with the flames, whose lower body gives way to acanthus scrolls joining the connection of the andirons, composed of a flaming incense burner supported by goat heads. Based on a model by Jean-François Forty, an Italian ornamentalist, cast in bronze by Jean-Noël Turpin in 1785.

19th century, Circa: 1850

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

Documentation :

Several examples of these neoclassical andirons exist. One is in the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris. Another was displayed in the grand apartments of the Château de Versailles before the French Revolution. In 1786, Marie-Antoinette commissioned Jean Hauré, supplier to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, to deliver a firebrand of this model, purchased from Turpin, for the salon des nobles de la Reine, which was in the process of being refurbished. These andirons were then surrounded by Jean-Henri Riesener's corner pieces and chests of drawers.

Bibliography :

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