On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Andiron
Herter Brothers American
This andiron, one of a pair, can be seen in the period photograph of William H. Vanderbilt’s bedroom, published in Artistic Houses (1883–84). An article featured in the period journal "Decorator and Furnisher" deemed that "griffins and other fanciful monsters are among the choice mounting for fire irons." Appropriately, a lion’s head crowns each upright log guard. Adhering to aesthetic tenets of the 1870s and early 1880s, the lions’ heads are highly conventionalized, with their jaws wide open. Even the feet are reduced to a simplified geometric form. The uprights are further embellished with pierced stylized sunflowers, one of the most popular natural motifs of the Aesthetic movement. The two colors of brass add visual interest.
