An Empire gilt and patinated bronze fire bar, circa 1810

Galerie Kugel, Paris. 

Related literature

M.-F. Dupuy-Baylet, L’heure, le feu, la lumière : Les bronzes du mobilier national (1800-1870), Dijon, 2010, p. 123

M.-F. Dupuy-Baylet, De bronze et de cristal : Objets d’ameublement XVIIIe-XIXe siècles du Mobilier National, Dijon, 2020, p. 216

At the beginning of the 19th century, the swan motif was very popular in the decorative arts and furniture, particularly in the apartments reserved for the Empress Joséphine. This fashion, however, was not confined to official palaces and spread widely into private interiors.

The Journal des dames et des modes of 31 January 1806 provides eloquent testimony to this taste, describing in the home of a petite maîtresse a décor entirely shaped by the swan motif:

“The bird that fastens the curtains of a window with its beak is a swan; it is again a swan that holds in its claws the bed hangings and, with the tip of its wing, lifts the antique drapery of a modern boudoir.”

This predilection for the swan is also reflected in several fireplace mantels dating from the First Empire period, now preserved in the collections of the Mobilier national (inv. GML 437 and GML 7451).