Pair of Wrought Iron Andirons with Stylised Flamboyant Uprights and Enrobed Feet

This magnificent pair of wrought iron andirons, attributed to Raymond Subes (1893–1970), reveals a more lyrical and expressive dimension of the master blacksmith's art than his more well-known geometric pieces. Rather than the severe silhouettes of flat plates for which Subes is most celebrated, these andirons are forged in the manner of his more decorative production, their uprights composed of several fine twisted iron rods rising in an ascending fan — like stylised flames, vegetal tendrils, or flamboyant Gothic architecture transposed into a modernist idiom. The base is formed of boldly curved scroll feet stretching outward with graceful authority. The intertwining of the twisted iron rods that make up the upright of each andiron is particularly striking: the individual elements diverge, cross, and gather as they rise, creating a complex visual rhythm that captures and disperses the light of the fire in a way that is entirely different from the flat surfaces of Subes' planar pieces. At the top, the rods flare into curved, coiled points, completing the flame-or-foliage composition with an energetic thrust. This vocabulary recalls the great French tradition of naturalistic ironwork — Émile Robert, Edgar Brandt, the wrought iron lace of historic French balconies — while remaining resolutely anchored in the modern mid-century moment. Subes' work embraced both the severely geometric and the richly decorative, and these andirons represent the latter trend in its most accomplished form. The quality of the ironwork — the precision of the twisting, the clean curves of the base's scrolls, the overall sense of technical mastery in service of expressive form — places this pair among the finest productions of his long workshop career, during which he executed commissions for the ocean liners Normandie and Île.