Pair of large ormolu andirons attributed to Pitoin from the Transition period

Pair of large chased and gilt bronze andirons attributed to Pitoin from the Transition period.

Decorated with fire pots and obelisks resting on fluted pedestals adorned with lion heads.

Used condition, one ring missing, gilding worn and bolts and nuts changed.

H. 45 x W.42 x D. 60 cm

7 800 €

These andirons were certainly made in the late 1760s by Quentin-Claude Pitoin (circa 1725-1777), the famous bronzemaker of the Garde-Meuble. In 1767, Pitoin delivered two pairs of this type to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, the first for Madame Victoire's bedroom in the Château de Saint-Hubert, the second for the Palais de Saint-Cloud. A few years later, in November 1773, the bronzemaker made another delivery, this time for the apartments of the Count d'Artois at the Château de Versailles; the Garde-Meuble journal then mentioned a pair of andirons similar to ours: “Un autre feu à vaze terminés d'une flame avec recouvrement sur lequel est posé deux vazes moins forts et à anses sur piédestaux a consolles ornés des masques de lion avec leurs peaux et pattes pendantes” (AN, O/1/3319, folio 120 verso).
Two other very similar pairs are currently known, one in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon, illustrated in Svend Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, 1974, fig.224; the other, described as early as 1775 in the grand salon of the Château de Montgeoffroy, owned by the Maréchal de Contades, has remained in the same room ever since (see P. Verlet, La maison du XVIIIe siècle en France, Fribourg, 1966, p.219).