19TH CENTURY

The firedogs (chenets) comprise tripods, scrolled and foliated in the 'picturesque' manner, and providing a perch for a Chinese gardener and his companion while listening to parrots. They derive from a pattern thought to have been invented for madame de Pompadour's apartments at her château de Bellevue (Dreyfus, Musée du Louvre, Les Objets d'Art du XVIII Siecle: Epoque Louis XV, Paris, n.d., fig. 3). A 'model de garniture de grill representant un chinois et une chinoise' also features in the 1755 inventory of the celebrated bronzier Jacques Caffieri (d. 1755) (E. Molinier, Le Mobilier Français de XVIIe et du XVIIIe Siecle, c. 1900, p.23). While the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux's 'Livre journal' of 1756 lists the purchase by Mme. la Marquise de la Ferriere of 'Un petit feu dore compose de figures Chinoises avec ses garniture de pelles et pincettes', which probably featured similar figures. A related pair of Louis XV chenets was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 4 ($43,700).