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andiron
EntityQ262026· pop 17· linked from 173 articles

Also known as fire dog

thumb|375px|A pair of simple wrought-iron andirons, 1780s, America thumb|375px|A drawing of andirons in use thumb|375px|French, late 18th century. Gilt-bronze fronts, with [[wrought iron behind]]

~8 min read

Encyclopedic overview

5 sections
Contents
  • Usage
  • Etymology
  • History
  • Notes
  • References

thumb|375px|A pair of simple wrought-iron andirons, 1780s, America thumb|375px|A drawing of andirons in use thumb|375px|French, late 18th century. Gilt-bronze fronts, with [[wrought iron behind]]

An andiron, firedog, fire-dog, fire dog or iron-dog is a bracket support, normally one of a pair, on which logs are laid for burning in an open fireplace, so that air may circulate under the firewood, allowing better burning and less smoke. They generally consist of a tall vertical element at the front, with at least two legs. This stops the logs from rolling out into the room, and may be highly decorative. The other element is one or more low horizontal pieces stretching back into the fireplace and serving to hold the logs off the bottom of the fireplace. An andiron is sometimes called a dog or dog-iron.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “andiron” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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