A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE CHENETS

This pair of chenets is modelled after those executed by the renowned fondeur Jean-Noël Turpin after drawings by Jean-François Forty, a pair of which were placed in the Salon des Nobles de la Reine at Versailles in 1786. Another pair are preserved in the Nissim de Camondo Museum, Paris (A. Michel, The Nissin de Camondo Museum, Paris, 1991, p. 59 and G. & R. Wannenes, Les Bronzes Ornementaux et Les objets montés, Milan, 2004, p. 291). While these chenets are not sculpted with the full length of the scrolling acanthus arabesques and the opposing flaming urns in Turpin's celebrated model, they are undoubtedly after Turpin, as they depict the same putti emerging from acanthus and leaning in with outstretched arms, as if to warm themselves at the fire.