Pair of Louis XV allegorical andirons

Pair of mercury gilt bronze andirons; the wrought iron support bars.

Each of the andirons is made up of ample windings decorated with rockeries and foliage and ends at the end with a kind of architecture which extends into the backs of the cherubs and ends with a bouquet of branches.
Sitting on these pedestals, two cherubs hold in their hands, one a palette symbolizing painting, and the other a rolled up paper, an allegory of literature (or poetry). They each held in the other hand a brush and pen, now missing.

Borrowings from the rock taste, flourished from the years 1725-1730, these andirons express through the art of metal and more particularly that of gilded bronze, all the fantasy and extravagance of the forms which characterize this moment of liberation of French art which runs until around 1750-1760.

Paris, around 1750.

Width: 40 cm.
Height: 35cm.
Depth: 68cm.

Slight wear to the gilding at the bottom of the andirons.

Worldwide delivery on estimate.