Pair of Firedogs

Designed to hold logs, firedogs or chenetstake their name from the French word for a small dog. Pairs of firedogs were placed inside the fireplace, with their gilt bronze decoration concealing wrought iron bars that supported the burning wood. These firedogs are the only pair in the Getty Museum's collection that retain these iron bars. Together with gilt bronze wall lights attached to a mirror frame and a gilt bronze clock on the mantelpiece, the firedogs would have created a glittering display that was the focal point in any elegant salon.

These firedogs are examples of the goût grec(Greek taste), a fashion inspired by ancient Greek and Roman architecture. With simple lines but of substantial scale, this form was popular for decades. Most likely designed by an architect working in Paris during the 1770s, the design still appealed to the Emperor Napoleon in 1805 when he ordered similar firedogs for the Petit Trianon at Versailles from the bronze caster Feuchère. Scholars cannot decide which of the two Feuchère brothers would have produced these firedogs, as both worked from the 1760s into the 1800s.