Fire dog from a pair in the Turkish cabinet of Marie-Antoinette at the Château of Fontainebleau Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813), bronzesmith C. 1777 Chased and gilt bronze Paris, Musée du Louvre, Department of Medieval, Renaissance and Modern Decorative Arts inv. OA 5260
The general taste for Turqueries in the 1770-1780s inspired the creation of precious “Turkish boudoirs” in royal residences illustrating a fantasised Orient. If the picturesque figures of the ostrich and the camel, whose realism is due to the extraordinary quality of the chasing, evoke the exoticism of distant lands, they are also a reminder that these animals could be found at the Royal Menagerie in Versailles. The pearl necklace motifs, sculpted in the wood of the chair, were also a recurrent feature of these Turqueries.
