A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU CHENETS

The pairing of a boar and recumbent stag was most notably employed on the chenets supplied by the bronzier Quentin-Claude Pitoin (d. 1786) for Madame du Barry's salon octagone at Fontainebleau in 1772 (P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, pp. 57-9). The pair was later placed by Louis XVI in his library at Versailles, and thereafter at the Palais des Tuileries.