Figural andirons became popular by the late eighteenth century, as evidenced by the trade card Paul Revere engraved for Joseph Webb, a Boston iron merchant and manufacturer. The Bayou Bend andirons represent a nineteenth-century version traditionally described as Hessian soldiers, the German mercenaries who fought for the British in the American Revolution. Variations suggest that more than one manufacturer produced them; however, at present they are associated only with New York City’s Phoenix Works.

Technical notes: The figures are hollow-cast with an integral horizontal tab on the back that aligns with the billet bar and is secured by a nut and bolt. The figures are painted.

Related examples: A similar set is at Winterthur (acc. no. 64.1546.1, .2). For examples with the foundry marks A.W.S. and  MBB, see Maine Antique Digest, October 1994, p. 19-E; Maine Antique Digest, December 1994, p. 11-E.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.