A fine pair of Empire ormolu chenets circa 1805, attributed to Claude Galle

each fitted with a striding lion with curly mane, his right foreleg resting upon a sphere, the lower part fitted with a frieze decorated with military trophies above leaf-cast paw feet and a rectangular plinth base.

A pair of chenets with identical rectangular plinth, fitted on top with a pair of ribbed spheres, was delivered by Claude Galle on December 23, 1809 for Napoléon's salon in the Grand Trianon, "un fort feu à boules et à trophées d'armes, ciselé, doré or mat, fer, pêle, pincette et tenailles vernies .." Prix demandé 1,000 F, réglé 960 F.  In 1836 this pair was moved into the salon des officiers, and in 1855 to the salon des glaces (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Grand Trianon Meubles et objets d'art, Vol. I, Paris, 1975, p. 111-112).  Another pair with identical retangular plinths formerly in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. was sold, Sotheby's, New York, June 3, 2008, lot 133.

A pair of chenets of rectangular outline were delivered to the palais de Fontainebleau for the salon de l'appartement  de prince in August 1808 by Ravrio.  This pair is decorated on the front with a pair of confronted lions which bear strong similarites to the lions on the present pair.  They are shown with curly manes, raised right paw and with their tails held upright, they flank an oval tazza all of which is after a design for chenets of a different model which appear in the catalogue of an unidentified bronzier conserved in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, see, J.-P. Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, no. 231, p. 236.