A Fine Napoleon III Period Gilt and Patinated Bronze Figural Chenet and Fender

Object Description

A Fine Napoleon III Period Gilt and Patinated Bronze Figural Chenet and Fender, Attributed to Charpentier & Cie., Paris.

Finely cast and chiselled in gilt and patinated bronze this impressive fender is in the form of scrolling foliate chenets with seated soldiers reclining against trees, with martial trophies suspended in the branches; the chenets are united by a shaped foliate cast fender bar with egg and dart moulding, centred by a trophy medallion.

This fender is a beautiful piece of antique design, which serves not only as a splendid fireplace accessory but also as an exquisite piece of sculpture.

French, Circa 1860.

Object History

The idealised figures of soldiers in anachronistic armour are conceived in the French neogothic, known as the Troubadour Style. It must be compared to garniture de chiminée dated to circa 1849 in the Louvre which has a clock surmounted by a figural group of Charles Martel fighting Sarrasin sculpted by Jean François Théodore Gechter (1796 – 1844) and made by the bronzier Charpentier. The clock is flanked by a pair of candelabra, similarly modelled with standing soldiers holding military attributes. (OA 11337-11339). Accordingly, an attribution for this fender can be made to Charpentier who presented at the 1849 exhibition in Paris ‘une pendule, un lustre, des candélabres, etc. composes d’hommes d’arms et d’armures et trophées’ (Rapport du jury central, 1849, T. III, p. 355).

Charpentier & Cie Bronziers

Located at 8 rue Charlot in Paris in 1860, the company became known as Lemerle-Charpentier from 1870 to 1890. At the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1878, Lemerle-Charpentier bronziers exhibited garnitures, vases, torcheres, and a large and impressive clock by Piat.

Object Details