In 18th-century colonial America and into the early 19th century, wood was the chosen heat source for households. The English lacked abundant wood supplies and used coal to heat their homes, but the timber of American forests proved an inexhaustible resource. Aware of this, canny English manufacturers produced and imported fireplace equipment to America before and after the American Revolution. With its manufacturing might and aggressive marketing, England dominated brass production and distribution throughout the 18th century. The amount of brass shipped to the colonies increased from about 28 tons in 1700 to 227 tons in 1760. By 1795, when trade had resumed after the Revolution, the amount of English brass arriving into American ports had risen to 312 tons. 

While American hardwaremen mainly offered English brass domestic products, raw materials were also sold. Using these raw materials, American artisans competed with English manufacturers for American patrons by imitating fashionable examples from London. Throughout American urban centers, brass founders created a variety of objects for the fireplace, including andirons, fenders, elements for bellows, and fire tools. Several examples of andirons and fire tools survive, of probable Boston origin. 

One such survival is the pair of andirons (B.76.257.1,.2) displayed in Bayou Bend’s Dining Room. With neoclassical urn-shaped finials and stipple-engraved swag motifs, the andirons complement the fireplace shovel and tongs. Although these objects are unmarked, like many brass objects made on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, several indications point toward a Boston attribution. The andirons and tools are both made of a relatively uncommon red brass having a high proportion of copper, which was frequently documented by Boston founders more than elsewhere in the United States. In addition, the graduated double urns, one on top of the other, were a popular design element with Boston metalworkers.