Pair of silver firedogs from the collection of King Charles II.

Each has a base of scrolling pedestal form, supported by two paw feet with a seated lion projecting beneath. The pedestal is decorated with chased leaf and floral work, and the applied cypher 'CR' below a royal crown. Each is surmounted by a different fully-modelled draped female figure, mounted on a classical urn. An inscription inside the plain silver backplate reads: 'July 12th 1827. Two plates, two lions two figures made weighing 89 oz to screw on two vases of unknown assay'.The silver part has been mounted on an iron bar to hold logs in the fireplace.

The firedogs are said to have been presented by Charles II to an ancestor of Sir Piers Mostyn Bart, and in 1938 they were sold at Christie's in the dispersal of the W. R. Hearst Collection. Another similar pair, at one time on loan to the NMM for display in the Queen's House between 1979 and 1983, and with the same concealed inscription, had also came from the former Royal Collection, being sold with a quantity of surplus Royal plate in the early 19th century, and were later in the collection of Earl Brownlow.