A PAIR OF REGENCY BLACK-PAINTED CAST-IRON FIREDOGS
A PAIR OF REGENCY BLACK-PAINTED CAST-IRON FIREDOGS

AFTER A DESIGN BY THOMAS HOPE

Details
A PAIR OF REGENCY BLACK-PAINTED CAST-IRON FIREDOGS
After a design by Thomas Hope
Each in the form of a griffin on a moulded plinth base, one inscribed to the underside in chalk '2', repaired tip to one wing
26 in. (66.5 cm.) high; 15 in. (38 cm.) wide; 8 in. (20 cm.) deep (2)
Provenance
William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (d. 1833) and by descent at Wentworth Woodhouse until 1998.

Lot Essay

The chimerical griffins, lion-bodied eagles sacred to the sun-god Apollo, were first introduced as guardian firedog 'chenets' after the French antique manner at the connoisseur Thomas Hope's Duchess Street mansion museum at the beginning of the 19th Century (T. Hope, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807, pl. LVIII).
These griffins are likely to have been commissioned by William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (d. 1833) for the Pillared Hall fireplaces at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, as part of his aggrandisement of the property carried out around 1820.

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