Lot 20: Russel Wright A Rare Pair of "Fire Deer" Andirons, 1930 iron stamped in the mold "C RUSSELL WRIGHT
Auction House: Phillips de Pury & Company
Auction Location: New York, NY, USA
3 West 57th
New York, NY
USA
10019
Auction Title: 20th - 21st Century Art
Auction Date: May 22, 2002
Description: 1930" 151/2 x 6 x 211 /4 in. (394 x 152 x 54 cm) Illustrated Ann Kerr, Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright, Paducah, KY, 1993, p. 15 This is the only known pair of the model to exist. The andirons appeared in a sales pamphlet, "Russel Wright's Circus," ca. 1930, which is reproduced in Kerr, p. 16 The "Circus" also included whimsical animals that served as paperweights and other desk accessories. According to anecdote, Wright changed the spelling of his first name in the late 1920s, when a supply of stationery he had ordered arrived with one "l" instead of two. The andirons date to such an early period in Wright's career that the unknown forger of them probably did not know the correct spelling of "Russel.".

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