CAST BY BOUHON FRÈRES, PARIS, LATE 19TH CENTURY

These chenets are of the same model as those in the salon d'Hercule at the Château de Versailles, illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 56, fig. 48. Another 19th century pair, of ormolu and patinated bronze, were sold Christie's, London, 'Works of Art from Collections of the Cholmondeley Family and The Late Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt. from Houghton', 8 December 1994, lot 52 (£14,950).

Bronziers, the Bouhon brothers or Bouhon et Cie specialised in bronze-decorated fire-places and fire-fittings. The firm participated in the 1878 and 1900 Paris Expositions Universelles.