Very Fine and Rare Pair Of Federal Highly Engraved Cast Bell Metal Brass And Wrought-Iron Andirons, Attributed to Edward Farmer Taylor and Thomas Bailey, London, England, Circa 1784-97

Zeke and Arthur Liverant, Stonington, CT;
Keno Auctions, Important American Furniture, Paintings, Folk Art and Decorative Arts, January 22, 2013, lot 57.

A very closely related pair of andirons is in the collection of Winterthur Museum (Donald L. Fennimore, Metalwork in Early America: Copper and Its Alloys from the Winterthur Collection, (Winterthur: DE: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1996), pp. 132-3, no. 53). Once thought to be a Charleston, South Carolina product, the cargo manifest of the Castle Douglas describes the shipment of "very neat large new make d[ou]ble Fire dogs with neat Eng[rave]d Princes metal obelisk pillars Claw Feet vase heads" consigned by the London braziers Edward Taylor and Thomas Bailey assuredly ascribes their origin.