19th Century, Pair of French Gilt Bronze Fireplace Chenets

This valuable pair of Fireplace Chenets was made in France in the early nineteenth century. The Fireplace Chenets are in finely chiselled and gilded bronze and have ornate decorations characteristic of the Louis XVI period.
You can see volutes and turns, cones and draperies of a strong classical taste that are in contrast with a blue enamel bottom that intensifies the brightness and depth. At the center is the head of the goddess Ceres, Mother Earth, which in classical iconography is represented with the head surrounded by ears of wheat, grapes and laurel branches. Ceres or Demeter in Greek, sister of Zeus, in Greek mythology is the goddess of fertility, nume tutela dei raccolti, protector of agriculture and wheat, constant nurse of youth and green land, author of the cycle of the seasons, life and death, Protector of marriage and sacred laws. Laurel is an evergreen plant, a characteristic that gives the plant the symbol of immortality and if used alongside other symbols, as an iconic adjective, it becomes a meaning of eternal and imperishable.
Above the horizontal central body is placed a tripod element, with goat’s leg, on whose circumference are inserted three goat heads with long horns from which blossoming garlands branch and on the top, in the middle, an important flame that clearly refers to the fire of the fireplace. Here, too, the detail of a crumble decorated with blue enamel helps to create color contrast and brightness to the whole.
The Fireplace Chenets were used to help the fire burn better, raising it. The primary purpose of the Fireplace Chenets is therefore to raise the fire, so that the air can reach it from all sides to make it burn better. While until the 17th century they were mostly made of iron, from this period they were made of bronze and brass, materials that at the time were expensive and difficult to find.
Even today they can be used to improve the ventilation of wood, to prevent the slipping of wood out of the fire and to decorate the fireplace. This beautiful pair of Fireplace Chenets can also be displayed as a decorative object next to or above a modern fireplace or as a refined and elegant mobile.