Antique Andirons between £0 and £0
Andirons are the paired metal supports that stand in an open fireplace to hold burning logs clear of the hearth, so air can reach beneath them.
What Are Andirons?
They go by several names, and a listing often uses two or three at once. Andirons, fire dogs, firedogs, and in the French idiom chenets. The word "andirons" appears in 184 of 247 titles on Sellingantiques, "fire dogs" in 88, so reading across both names is normal practice in this category.
The form you'll meet most is a pair of 19th-century English brass or brass-and-iron dogs. Brass leads the materials at 85 titles, iron follows at 74, and 151 titles say "pair". English brass fire dogs and cast or wrought iron pairs each account for roughly a third of what turns up.
French chenets in bronze and ormolu make up around a sixth, and they're where the figural work sits: cherubs, caryatids, satyrs, phoenixes. Another sixth aren't loose pairs at all but whole hearth assemblies, with grates, fire baskets or fire-backs sold set on or with their andirons. A smaller group comes with matching fire irons.
Dating is broad. Only 100 of the 247 listings carry a clean year, and the commonest period entry is the approximate "19th Century", used 77 times, with Victorian behind it at 31. Decade entries cluster late, the 1900s ahead of the 1880s and 1890s. Read the field as a bracket and expect Victorian to Edwardian stock.
Top And Bottom
Material sets the floor and the ceiling. Gilt bronze and ormolu sit at the top of the range, and the sixteen ormolu titles cluster there. Plain brass fire dogs of about 1900 and cast iron pairs hold the bottom. Bronze, in twenty-one titles, tends to sit above brass.
After material, it's modelling. Titles carrying a lion, sphinx, dragon, cherub, caryatid, satyr or phoenix fall almost all in the upper half of the sample, and a named idiom does similar work: Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Gothic Revival, Aesthetic, Baroque, Rococo, Renaissance and Empire all appear as title terms and all push a pair upward.
Scale counts too. "Large" appears in 48 titles and "heavy" in 16, alongside monumental, enormous and huge, and the inglenook pieces are big by design. Completeness pulls in the same direction: andirons offered with their grate, basket, fire-back or fire irons sit above a loose pair.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for andirons between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The most expensive andirons ever sold on Sellingantiques came as a whole hearth: a large 18th century heavy iron fire back, andirons and grate, in December 2025.
The Antique Andirons between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Andiron
- One of a pair of metal supports standing in the fire to hold logs clear of the hearth. Sold in pairs far more often than singly.
- Fire dog
- The everyday English name for the same object, spelled as two words in 88 titles and as one in 15.
- Chenet
- The French term, used on this site for low bronze or ormolu andirons, often figural. It appears in 17 titles.
- Ormolu
- Gilded bronze or brass. Sixteen titles use the word and they concentrate at the top of the range.
- Wrought iron
- Iron worked hot at the forge rather than poured. Fourteen titles, sometimes joined by "forged" or "hand-forged". Cast iron, at 28 titles, is the moulded alternative and the route to repeating and figural patterns.
- Inglenook
- A deep recessed fireplace. Fourteen titles use the word, and in practice it signals large scale rather than a style.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are andirons always sold in pairs?
Not always, though pairs dominate. Of 247 titles on Sellingantiques, 151 say "pair".
The rest are singles, complete hearth sets, or grates and baskets that happen to include dogs. A title reading "Fire Basket, Andirons" is describing an assembly rather than a loose pair.
What's the difference between andirons and fire dogs?
Nothing. They're two names for the same object, and dealers use them interchangeably, often in the same title.
"Andirons" runs through 184 titles, "fire dogs" through 88. Chenet is the French word for the same thing, used mostly for low bronze and ormolu pairs.
How old are most andirons on the market?
The dated field spans 1500 to 1940, but the bulk is much later than that range suggests. Seventy-seven listings say simply "19th Century" and thirty-one say Victorian.
Decade-level entries cluster in the 1900s, 1880s and 1890s. Only six listings are dated 18th century, and pre-1700 pieces are isolated outliers rather than a supply.
Which materials turn up in this category?
Brass leads at 85 titles, iron follows at 74, split between cast and wrought. Bronze accounts for 21 and ormolu 16.
One-off materials appear too, including a nickel-over-bronze pair. Steel shows up at the late end, in a pair of Arts and Crafts andirons dated 1940.
Why do listings mention grates and fire baskets?
Because a good number of andirons come attached to the rest of the hearth. "Grate" appears in 36 titles, "basket" in 28, "fire basket" in 26.
These assemblies sit above loose pairs in the range, and the inglenook examples are the largest things in the category. One wrought-iron pair stands 86cm tall.
Do figural andirons differ from plain ones?
In price position, yes. Modelled figures cluster in the upper half of the sample: lions, sphinxes, dragons, cherubs, caryatids, satyrs and phoenixes.
Plain polished brass pairs of around 1900 sit at the other end. Odd forms surface once and nowhere else, among them horse-whip andirons and a lion-and-unicorn cast iron pair.