Fireplaces and Mantels

White Carrara Marble Louis XVI Mantel circa 1880

A spectacular and most impressive French 19th century Louis XIV st. Brèche Violette marble fireplace mantel with all original ormolu mounts. This fireplace mantel is made in the mann...

Beautiful French style carved oak mantel in the Art Nouveau genre, with lovely gold applique of crests and acanthus leaves. #5922 H opening 35.5” W opening 35”.

A handsome Jacobean style carved oak fire surround. This ornate fireplace features a painted heraldic motif to the centre dating from the 1880s. This magnificent antique fireplace w...

American brass and artistic wire work fireplace fender with flanking banded ball finials. Boston, MA. Early 19th Century

A Highly Important Empire Period Rosso Antico Chimneypiece Inset with Specimen Marble Portrait Reliefs of Roman Emperors The carved and veneered surround comprising a moulded shelf supported by a bold dentil cornice, above an inverted breakfront frieze carved with a central triglyph panel, flanked by a pair of rosettes carved in shallow relief, the frieze mounted with six carved hardstone profile portrait medallions of Roman Emperors, the stop-fluted jambs raised on moulded footblocks; in excellent condition with small restorations commensurate with age and use; the pale inclusions in the stone naturally formed. This spectacular neoclassical marble chimneypiece is carved from Rosso antico, the frieze inset with six portrait reliefs of Roman Emperors, each carved in marmo giallo on a bardiglio background, five variously incised: VESPASIANUS, TIBERIVS, OTHO, JULIUS CAESAR, TITUS. Rosso antico (marmor taenarium) is first recorded as being quarried in 1700 BC at Akra Tainaron (Cape Matapan), Greece.¹ The majority of this stone, however, was extracted throughout the Roman period, when it was one of the most coveted materials for carving due to its rich red colouring and association with highly prized Egyptian ‘Imperial’ Porphyry.² Rosso antico was chosen in antiquity for portrait busts, notably depicting Bacchic subjects such as Dionysus and satyrs due to its rich red wine colour which symbolised conviviality whilst conveying the education and cultivated taste of the owner.³ In the Renaissance, Rosso antico was also used for architectural detail on important buildings, such as the steps leading up to the choir in the medieval church of S. Prassede, and the large columns at the entrance to the Camera dell'Aurora.⁴ In 121 AD, G. Suetonius Tranquillus, secretary to Emperor Hadrian, wrote a biographical history of the first twelve emperors of Rome entitled De vita Caesarum (The Twelve Caesars). A Renaissance edition of Tranquillus’ work was published in 1470, followed by further reprints and translations into all the main European languages. Many of these were illustrated with prints of emperors taken from coins and statues, or imagined by the artist based on Tranquillus’ accounts. These interpretations were copied, in turn, by Renaissance designers for medals, Limoges enamels, and busts, as well as paintings such as the Eleven Caesars, a series of eleven half-length portraits of Roman emperors made by Titian in 1536–40 for Federico II, Duke of Mantua.⁵ These paintings were later given to King Charles I, before being passed in the Commonwealth to the Kings of Spain. Unfortunately, the series was destroyed in the catastrophic fire of 1734 at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, and is now only known through copies and engravings.⁶ From the middle of the 17th century until the end of the 18th century, there was an insatiable demand for marble carvings, often sold as Roman or assembled from ancient fragments, thus perpetuating the reverence for antiquity that was the quintessence of the Grand Tour. Rosso antico was in extremely short supply, even after the ancient quarries at Skutari were rediscovered in 1830, and remained one of the most highly valued of all stones. Described in 1776 as ‘dark red; scarce and dear’, it was mostly used for small objects such as Grand Tour desk ornaments, inevitably using material re-cut from classical fragments, due to its rarity, as was the case with porphyry.⁷ The portrait roundels on this chimneypiece are typical of those produced in Rome and Florence in hardstones, semi-precious stones, gold, silver, bronze, and mother-of-pearl, which, being easily transportable, would be taken home from the Grand Tour to be mounted within wooden, gilded or brass frames, as fashion dictated.⁸ A group of gold portraits of Caesars, dating from around 1660, are in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. Images of Roman emperors were not limited to Italy, England and France, however, as examples executed in Deshima for the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) show. Medallions depicting Roman emperors, invariably made of black and gold Japanese hiramakie or takamakie lacquer on copper, were produced for the Dutch market at the end of the 18th century. Examples can be found in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.⁹ There are two possible sources for the Imperial profiles on the chimneypiece: the engravings of The Twelve Caesars by Marcantonio Raimondi, or the Imperatorum Imagines by Hubert Golz.¹⁰ The portrait medallions also bear remarkable resemblance to a set of eighteen carved portrait reliefs of Roman Emperors, also of marmo giallo, almost certainly bought by David Ker (1742–1811) of Portavo, Co. Down, on his Grand Tour between 1792–4 in either Florence or Rome. Ker’s diary entry for 17th October 1793 is interesting as it reveals that he was offering his brother a choice of chimneypiece designs, which further supports a Roman origin for the offered example.¹¹ Indeed, fire surrounds incorporating antique fragments had been promoted from the late 1760s by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–78), encouraged by Rome-trained architects including Robert Adam (d.1792). One such example, inset with mythological tablets carved from Rosso antico, was acquired by the 9th Earl of Exeter from Piranesi himself for Burghley House.¹² Another can be found at Islington House, Dorset.¹³ A third, inset with giallo antico and Rosso antico, follows Piranesi’s engraved design dated 1769 for a fire surround mounted with three marble portrait reliefs.¹⁴ It should be re-emphasised that Rosso antico was so precious that it was only ever used for small tablets or details rather than an entire chimneypiece, as with the offered example; likewise, while portrait reliefs are occasionally seen on the jambs of Italian surrounds, it is exceptionally rare to see the frieze mounted with a group, especially of this scale: the combination indicates an architectural commission by an extremely wealthy patron. The sophisticated lines of this chimneypiece epitomise the French Empire influence on the Italian states at the turn of the 18th century. This idiosyncratic ‘Roman’ taste is encapsulated by that of Napoleon, who identified with Rome’s Imperial past. Napoleon’s desire to establish a visual link between himself and Roman emperors is demonstrated by the portraits of his court painter, Jacques-Louis David, inspired by portraits of Emperor Augustus. This Imperial taste extended to architecture, furniture and porcelain, the latter two of which are combined in a group of magnificent ormolu-mounted guéridons commissioned in Sèvres between 1803–11, made to immortalise Napoleon’s reign.¹⁵ The second guéridon in the series, the Table des Grands Capitaines (Table of the Great Commanders of Antiquity), commissioned in 1806, is made almost entirely of hard-paste Sèvres porcelain. The top, painted in imitation of sardonyx, is centred by a portrait cameo of Alexander the Great, surrounded by twelve smaller heads of commanders and philosophers from antiquity: Pericles, Scipio Africanus, Pompey, Augustus, Septimus Severus, Constantine, Trajan, Caesar, Mithridates, Hannibal, Themistocles and Miltiades.¹⁶ Louis XVIII presented the table to the Prince Regent (later King George IV) in 1817 as a token of appreciation for Napoleon’s defeat two years earlier, and George IV treasured it so highly that it became part of the ceremonial backdrop for all his state portraits. The table remains in the Royal Collection.¹⁷ This chimneypiece remained, until recently, in the possession of a noble Dutch family, who acquired it from the owners of a bombed Knightsbridge house in the 1940s; unfortunately, its provenance prior to this has been lost. The use of Rosso antico on this scale, inset with these splendid Imperial profile medallions, appears unparalleled. 1. J. B. Grossman, 'Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture in Stone' (Los Angeles, 2003). Grossman states that this material was ‘...quarried in three places during antiquity: on Cape Tainaron present day Matapan on the Peloponnese of Greece; on Crete; and at the site of Iasos in Asia Minor. 2. L. Lazzarini, ‘Rosso antico and other red marbles used in antiquity: a characterization study’, Marble, Art Historical and Scientific Perspectives on Ancient Sculpture’ (1990), 237–252. C. Gorgoni, L. Lazzarini, P. Pallante, ‘New archaeometric data on Rosso antico and other red marbles used in antiquity, ASMOSIA VI, Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone’ (2002), pp. 199–206. J. Deér, trans. G.A. Gilhoff, The Dynastic Porphyry Tombs of the Norman Period in Sicily (Cambridge, 1959), p. 144. R. Gnoli, Marmora Romana (Rome, 1988), pp. 187–191. 3. A notable example is a satyr from the Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. Another is the head of a satyr in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, accession no. 2006.110. See T. Opper, Hadrian. Empire and Conflict (London, 2008), p. 165, fig. 149. 4. De Luca, Marmi antichi (Rome, 1998), p. 126. Faustino Corsi, Catalogo ragionato d’una collezione di pietre di decorazione (Rome, 1833), p. 93. 5. For related Limoges medallions, see set of ten circular Limoges enamel medallions depicting Roman emperors, en grisaille with gilding, from the workshop of Jacques I Laudin, sold Christie’s London, Fine Renaissance Bronzes and Works of Art, 19 December, 1977, lot 95. 6. See set of drawings sold Sotheby’s London, Of Royal and Noble Descent, 24 February, 2015, lot 184. 7. J. J. Ferber, Raspe’s Travels through Italy in the Years 1771–1772 (London, 1776), p. 218. 8. See Sotheby’s London, Pelham, the Public and the Private, 8 March 2016, lot 75: ‘A set of twelve mother-of-pearl cameos of Roman Emperors, Southern Italian, early 19th century’ 9. Oliver Impey, Christiaan J.A. Jörg, Cynthia Viallé, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580–1850 (Amsterdam, 2005) pp. 48–57, no. 56 & 57. 10. For a further reference, see the candlesticks by Jacques I Laudin in the Waters Art Gallery, illustrated in P. Verdier, Catalogue of the Painted Enamels of the Renaissance (Baltimore, 1967), p. 389, nos. 207 & 208. 11. John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy 1701–1800 (London, 1997), pp. 572–3. 12. Oliver Impey, Four Centuries of Decorative Arts from Burghley House (Virginia, 1998), p. 53, fig. 23. 13. Country Life, 12 June, 1997, p. 162, figs. 9–11. 14. A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle due Sicilie, Vol. II (Milan, 1984), pp. 592–93, p. 260. 15. S. Grandjean, 'Napoleonic Tables...

An antique English Jacobean revival oak mantlepiece with original dark finish. This tall and well proportioned wooden fireplace with original bevelled glass mirror is profusely carve...

Important and massive reproduction of the 18th century style French marble fireplace in Louis 15 style. With serpentine shaped shelf and bowed frieze, decorated by spring flowers in...

English Arts & Crafts-style fire screen with a black wrought iron frame with scroll design pediment and feet, holding a central pressed copper screen featuring a floral design.

Louis XV Style Fireplace In White Carrara Marble Circa 1880 Dimensions of the hearth 85.5 x 87.5 cm

An antique Georgian style painted pine fire surround, carved with flower ‘bullseye’ roundels to the end blocks, reclaimed from a property in south-east England. Though dating from t...

Louis XV style mantel in onyx This fireplace is sold with its original cast iron insert and with its marble floor.

19th Century Fireplace Basket High Back Grate. Original Georgian Fireplace Dog Grate. With Decorative Cast Iorn Fireback & Ball Dogs. Blackened Finish. Recently Salvaged From A Lon...

Pair of American cast and wrought iron flanking reared horse andirons with decorative horseshoe back legs, Mid-19th century.

Rustic stone fireplace surround from the 17th Century. The beige hard limestone brings instant French slow living feeling in the room. Measureme...

An antique late 19th century French oak fireplace. This fireplace's shaped rounded frieze displays handcarved foliage, highlighted by its deep bac...

White glazed earthenware stove with cast iron elements, dating from 1840 and belonging to the Prussian period. It features geometric and floral relief decoration on the side and fron...

Pair of French bronze and brass mythological figural scrolled floral and step back rocky plinth chenets with supporting iron backs, Early 19th century.

An antique Georgian style carved pine fire surround. Dating to circa 1850, this English fireplace has a stripped pine finish, heavily carved with swags and foliage topped with a stri...

The scroll work around this screen make a wonderful frame for the intricate floral bouquet in the center of the screen. The scroll work on the feet continue the look to complete this...

This French Grand Mix Campan Marble Mantel is a stunning and historical addition to any home. Handcrafted from a blend of Grand mix and Ribboned Campan m...

A finely engraved early 20th century polished wrought fire screen by C Downer, Campden, Glos. The fire screen with densely latticed mesh riveted to inner frame, extensive intricate ...

A striking and quite exceptional Georgian, pine and gesso chimneypiece, the frieze carved with a musical motif that consists, amongst other things, a lyre, laurel leaves, oboes and s...

Pair of Italian wrought iron andirons with foliate petals, centered acanthus plinths, and terminating on hand chased scrolled legs. Early 19th Century

A very unique and exclusive castle fireplace of black marble. The provenance of this antique fireplace is Chateau de Doyon in the neighborhood of Namen (Belgium). This castle is buil...

A very fine Antique English early 19th century Geo. IV period pierced brass fireplace fender with traditional "ivy" pierced motif and a nice gadroon or rope type central bolster. Ima...

A substantially constructed and beautifully decorated antique English mahogany fireplace of beautiful colour and quality, dating from the mid 19th century. The simple lines and large-scale proportions of this antique mahogany fire surround...

Description: Carrara marble fireplace. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS, INFORMATION OF THE LOT AND SHIPPING INFORMATION CAN BE REQUEST BY SENDING AN EMAIL Indicative shipping costs in Italy: 550€ ...

An antique Georgian style painted fireplace. Dating to the mid-century, this elegant English Georgian style fireplace is constructed in pine with a white painted finish. A feature o...

This 19th century French wooden fireplace mantel exudes antique charm with its timeworn patina and hand-carved details. Crafted from solid wood, it features a simple rectangular form...

Expertly crafted from French Red Griotte marble, this 1870s mantel features intricate style carvings and rich veining that add a touch of elegance to any space. Made in France, this ...

Pair of French iron chenets or andirons, 19th century.

This original William IV register grate is embellished with ornate acanthus detailing throughout the hood of the opening. A very grand piece, that has been fully restored in-house...

A good 18th century French cast iron fireback depicting Susanna and the Elders. Expert casting with detailed relief and shaped crest. Notice ...

An English moulded bolection fireplace in Calacatta Verde marble. A scaled down version of a chimneypiece originally housed in the Officer's mess at Ch...

An antique late Georgian or Regency period painted pine and gesso/composition fire surround. Dating to circa 1820, this stunning fireplace is an original of the English Georgian and ...

Beautiful antique fireplace of French limestone with beautiful lines. This fireplace is from the 19th century and in the style of Louis XIV. A nice compact fireplace with a rustic look.

Monumental figures fireplace Neo-Renaissance 19th century walnut -hight 111 inch. Solid walnut body flanked by a fully plastic male figures / atla...

Very beautiful and exclusive antique fireplace of Saint Remy marble from Belgium. This type of marble has a warm color nuance and the beautiful chiseled ornaments give this fireplace...

A smart Art Deco wooden fire mantel dating from the 1920s. Made in walnut, this reclaimed fireplace has a rich colour that’s perfect for a period pr...

American brass two tiered bar fire fender with bulbous ball finials and rectangular molded base. Mid 19th Century

A tall, Louis XIV ‘Bolection de Versailles’ antique chimney-piece or fire place in richly coloured cherry red Griotte marble. The concave fluted fri...

An English bolection fireplace in Italian Arabescato marble. The jambs and frieze with moulding throughout, surmounted by moulded shelf. Unusually deep design for the style adding th...

American brass rail and pleasing wire work fire place screen, early 19th century.

A simple and handsome early 20th century reclaimed Edwardian oak fire mantel. This beautiful solid oak fire surround has an understated design with a sma...

Stylish fireplace mantel, in French limestone and dating from the 19th century. Inside dimensions : 119cm wide & 84cm high Depth : 33cm-54cm-73cm

English Georgian Pine Classical mantle with original carved gesso, foliage, and medallion motif. Late 18th Century. Overall measurements- 67.25" Wide at top / 7.25" Deep at top /...

A petite, hand carved Georgian style pine fire mantel salvaged from a townhouse in Bath, UK. This elegant wooden fireplace is over 150 years old and has beautifully preserved details including floral embellishments to the corner blocks, stylised dentals and lambs tongue carving. Highly ornate, this antique Georgian fireplace...

A good quality Art Deco 'Chinoiserie' painted timber fireplace. The stepped frieze and jambs adorned with finely painted Chinese landscapes including ...

Very nice and exclusive marble fireplace in the style of Louis XV. The kind of marble is Griotte Rouge from Belgium.

Antique fireplace mantle in black and gold lacquered wood, with spiers and sculptures in full neo-gothic style, therefore from the early mid-19th century, very articulated and of gua...

Crafted in the late 19th century, this substantial fireplace surround and mantel, made of oak and finished with a dark stain, features a frieze of scrolled leaves below a carved, bre...

Circa 1890 England Quality fire dogs with subtle and elegant brass work showing their original patina and lustre with swirling finials.

A fine pair of French 19th century Louis XV style gilt-bronze mounted figural chenets. The ornately decorated andirons, each with a figure of a resting Putto (Children) holding a tor...

A handsome antique English oak fireplace beam carved in the arts and crafts style, perfect for an inglenook fireplace. With its medium golden oak colour, this reclaimed oak fireplace...

An elegant fireplace insert with curved sides and applied beading. This antique fire insert will make a timeless addition to any chimneypiece. Additional dimensions Opening Height ...

A fine pair of French 19th-20th century Louis XV style gilt and patinated bronze figural chenets. Each cast as two patinated figures of amorini (Putti) growing out of leafy volute vi...

Art Deco Style Free Standing Fire Basket with Decorative Back and Ash Pan This is a useful and decorative piece, the grate has an iron fire back decorated in the art deco style, the...

18th Century Large Mantle Regence Chateau Hand Carved Stone Antique Fireplace , Rare and unique French antique castle fireplace Louis Regence Transition Louis XV Period Limestone Chi...

Beautiful 18th Century Georgian Period Pickled Pine Fireplace Mantle The firebox is 38" wide x 36" Tall