French Country · Encyclopedia · Fire and Light
Gridiron and ash shovel
Seventeenth-century hearth tools in wrought iron. When not in use, the gridiron hung on the wall by the hollow of its heart-shaped handle, and the long ash shovel ended discreetly in the same way.
French: gril, pelle à cendres · 17th century · wrought iron
At a glance
- Period: seventeenth century
- Material: wrought iron
- Use: grilling over embers; clearing ashes
- Shared motif: heart-shaped handle ends
What they are
The gridiron is a frame of iron bars on short legs, set over embers to grill meat or bread. The ash shovel is a long-handled pan for clearing and moving ash.
Both handles end in a heart, which served as a hanging loop on the wall when the tools were not in use.
Matching hearth sets
Fire tools were often made as a set by the same smith, with repeating motifs. Their decoration turned the hearth, the center of the house, into a display of the household's taste and beliefs.
Collecting and displaying them
Check for welds or modern rivets that would indicate later repairs. Heart handles and similar motifs are frequently reproduced, so compare wear with the overall surface.
A gridiron and shovel hung side by side make a handsome display beside a fireplace.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 116–121, with general background on the object. The book was published in 1995, so workshops, people and figures are described as they were then. Regional names and dates are given as the book records them; a style or a region of origin does not by itself date an individual piece.