A pair of Régence gilt-bronze chenets, circa 1720

Charles Wrightsman Collection, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, 5 May 1984, lot 134.

Lucia Moreira Salles Collection, Sotheby's New York, 23 November 2009, lot 103 (sold 28 125 $)

FJB Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol II, 1966, n°187, p 370

H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Vol I, Munich, 1986, p. 72, fig. 1.10.15 (probably the one illustrated)

This pair of fire dogs comes from the collection of Charles Wrightsman, who for many years loaned part of his collection, including these andirons, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They are illustrated by F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol. II, Metropolitan Museum, 1966, no. 187, and also probably illustrated in Vergoldete Bronzen, Vol. I, Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Munich, 1986, p. 72, fig. 1.10.15. They were subsequently sold by Sotheby's on May 5, 1984, lot 134.

Charles Wrightsman (1895 - 1986) was a major 20th-century American art collector, best known for his pivotal role in enriching the European collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With his wife, Jayne, he assembled a remarkable collection of 18th-century French decorative arts, which they gradually donated to the museum. Their contribution was so significant that it helped the Metropolitan become a world leader in this field.

In Lazare Duvaux's journal, we find a pair of rather similar chenets, sold to the Marquis de Voyer: "two bronze fire fittings, representing marine figures, very well chiseled", in November 1752, under inventory number 1269. A similar pair of chenets in the Museum of Decorative Arts of Paris (inv. 20872).

A similar pair of fire dogs, one with the crowned C has been sold at The Estate of Mrs Charles Allen Jr, Sotheby's New York, 11 November 1997, lot 46.