Samuel Yellin Andirons

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Here for your consideration is a rare pair of Samuel Yellin andirons. Measures 24" x 17" x 23". In good "old" condition with one small scroll piece missing on the rear of the left andiron shown in picture #3. Both andirons are properly signed "Yellin" it appears that vagrancies of time and a century of fires have taken their toll. Although well used, are still in good serviceable condition, Yellin's genius still shows through. This pair of andirons appeared in an eastern auction with the selling estimate of $15,000 to $20,000 however did not sell. I would entertain any offer.

Samuel Yellin (1885-1940), American master blacksmith, was born in Galicia Poland where at the age of eleven he was apprenticed to an iron master. By the age of sixteen had had completed his apprenticeship. During that period he gained the nickname of "Devil", both for his work habits and his sense of humor. Shortly after this he left Poland, traveling through Europe to England, where in 1906, he departed for America. By 1907 he was taking classes at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the Philadelphia College of Art) and within a year was teaching classes there, a position that he maintained until 1919. In 1909 he opened his own shop and in 1915 the firm of Mellor, Meigs and Howe, for whom he designed and created many commissions, designed Yellin a new studio at 5520 Arch Street in Philadelphia where he was to remain until his death in 1940. The building continued to act as a functioning business under Yellin's son Harvey's direction. After his demise it served as the Samuel Yellin Museum. During the building boom of the 1920s Yellin's studio employed as many as 250 workers, many of them European artisans. Although Yellin appreciated traditional craftsmanship and design, he always championed creativity and the development of new designs. He was no slave to the past. Samuel Yellin's handiwork can be found on some of the finest buildings in America. There is only one way to make good decorative ironwork and that is with the hammer at the anvil, for in the heat of creation and under the spell of the hammer, the whole conception of a composition is often transformed." Samuel Yellin (1885-1940), American master blacksmith.