Fire dog

The design of this andiron—a metal support designed to hold wood in a fireplace—incorporating “VR” (Victoria Regina), the monogram of Queen Victoria, can be confidently attributed to A. W. N. Pugin, the architect/designer responsible for the interior decoration of more than one thousand rooms and their fixtures in the “new palace” of Westminster, or Houses of Parliament. Pugin worked in partnership with architect James Barry to rebuild the Houses of Parliament in the Gothic Revival style after a fire in 1834 destroyed nearly all the medieval buildings on that site. The Birmingham firm of John Hardman and Sons has become nearly synonymous with Pugin, having produced both sacred and secular metalwork for three generations of the Pugin family’s architectural practice. The Hardman business archives (Birmingham Public Reference Library) are extensive and may contain more information about this rare design that has not been previously recorded, and perhaps information about the room for which it was intended.