A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI STYLE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE CHENETS

The playful design of these chenets is derived from the celebrated eighteenth-century model by one of the most celebrated bronziers of the time, Jacques Caffieri. Modeled with a seated dog and cat, the original model was recorded in a 1755 inventory taken from Caffieri's workshop. His son Philippe Caffieri supplied a pair of chenets featuring a cat and poodle, probably of the same model as the present lot, to the Prince de Condé in 1773, at a cost of 1,120 livres, see Svend Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, p. 357 pl. 223. Three closely related examples are illustrated in Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Proschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. 1, Munich, 1986, p. 201. Further eighteenth-century examples were sold from the Collection of the Late Thelma Chrysler Foy, Parke Bernet, New York, 13-16 May 1959, lot 293. Most recently, a pair of chenets of this model was sold Christie's, London, 3 July 2021, lot 19 (£325,000).