England - Fireplaces and Mantels

A tall and robustly carved George II style pine chimneypiece in the manner of William Kent. The acanthus decorated frieze with female mask at centre is under an egg and dart cornice ...

An antique Victorian oak fireplace. This simple and handsome late 19th century fireplace has an understated design with smart carved corbel supports and wide mantel. A fireplace tha...

An antique Georgian style carved pine and composition fire surround. Crafted from solid pine with a stripped and waxed finish this fire surround has an elegant compact and simple de...

19th Century Glazed Blue & White Pottery by Ulisse Cantagalli, circa 1885 An exceptional antique glazed blue and white pottery fireplace by Ulisse C...

A very strong architecturally styled marble chimneypiece with geometric design, based on a model by one of Britain’s most influential architects, John Soane. His architectural style incorporated Palladian elements, as well as forms from Italian baroque and Inigo Jones.

An unusual mid-19th century neoclassical style wooden fireplace, circa 1850 and later. This antique fireplace is made from a combination of pine and hardwoods, possibly mahogany, whi...

20th Century, Hand Carved Statuary Marble English Fireplace. Hand carved statuary white marble fireplace surround. (Two available) Have you ever dreamt of owning a sculptural masterpiece as magnificent as this fireplace believed to be a replica of The Original Fireplace...

A large and imposing English William IV fireplace in pencil vein Carrara marble, with paneled pilaster jambs with twin corbel brackets supporting a long wide and generous mantel. Som...

An antique Victorian breccia marble fireplace. Showcasing style and stature, this fireplace would make an impressive feature for the main room of any period property looking to add c...

An antique early 20th century English oak fireplace. Elegant egg and dart carvings line the dog leg jambs to the moulded frieze. In classic Victorian style, this fireplace evokes sty...

A late 18th century Georgian English neoclassical chimneypiece, with a wide breakfront shelf. The centre tablet carved in high relief of a classical female figure in a garden. Flanke...

A stunning late 19th century Jacobean style antique oak fireplace, beautifully handcarved with herm style caryatids to the jambs, lion masks to the end blocks and a cartouche to the ...

Beautiful late 18th century Louis XV Parisian rouge marble fireplace mantelpiece and cast-iron interior. This French fireplace mantel boas...

An antique Georgian bullseye pine fireplace, dating from circa 1790. This simple yet elegant English fire surround is typical of the Georgian period, showcasing distinct hand-carved ...

A finely worked wrought Iron fire grate from the Arts & Crafts period, extensive scroll detail with framed fire brick back.

An exceptional carved chimney piece with mirror above, inspired by the Chinese room of Claydon. The elaborate carved decoration following the style of Luke Lightfoot...

A reclaimed Victorian walnut fire surround. Dating to circa 1900, this fireplace is handcrafted from good quality English oak with a handsome dark finish. Carved stylised flowers an...

A good quality 19th century French Louis XV Carrara fireplace. The panelled frieze with heavily carved leafwork and foliage throughout. The ...

A tall antique Jacobean style carved oak fireplace with an impressive linen fold panelled overmantel. Striking in style and stature, this fireplace dates from the late 19th century ...

With its beautifully hand carved tablet and intricate details, this wooden mantel in the Georgian style is a spectacular surround for a large room. It features a rich caramel brown c...

19th century Victorian Gothic fireplace grate. Traditional blackened finished basket grate with church like spike fencing flanked support by Serpent Style Andirons / Fire Dog...

A reclaimed oak bolection style fire surround, reclaimed from a house in Yorkshire. This fireplace has a simple yet elegant design suitable for period and contemporary properties al...

A hand carved limestone Victorian fireplace with oak shelf. Dating back to circa 1900 this surround is representative of classic craftsmanship. It has stood the test of time with its...

The chimneypiece bears a center tablet that closely resembles that by Robert Adam in the library at Kenwood House, the overall form echoing his work in its detail and in the quality ...

An Arts & Crafts semi-circular wrought-iron fire basket with heart-shaped finials. The railed basket with cone and heart-shaped finials that flank the arched fireback...

A finely cast hob grate from the early 19th century, in the manner of George Bullock. The scrolled Acanthus leaf console uprights with inverted reeded panels, bowed front bars with b...

An original Art Deco walnut fire mantel; one of two almost identical fireplaces we are selling salvaged from a property in South London. Featuring unique character woodgrain and an arched shelf...

21st Century Black Granite Fireplace Mantlepiece The Cool Beauty Of This Hand Carved Stone Fireplace, A Versatile Choice For Period Or Modern Settings. Georgian-influenced, It Has ...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this unique antique circa 1880-1900 pierced metal brown leather Fire place club fender Please note the del...

Wonderful large French log basket. Originally used for harvesting grapes. 1800. Code: 8977 Dimensions: W: 35.5" (90.2 cm) H: 37.5" (95.3 cm) D: 29" (73.7 cm)

An elegant early 20th century Louis XV style English oak fire surround with a distinctive sandblasted finish, applied with a light grey paint wash. Carved with a defined scallop she...

A large and grand antique Statuary marble fireplace dating to the 1850’s. Each pilaster with two full rounded and free standing Corinthian columns th...

20th Century Georgian Style Hand-Carved White Marble Fireplace Mantelpiece This unique fireplace made to order and produced under license from Kenwood House Hampstead, London. Finely...

An antique Doulton & Co glazed green fire surround. Constructed in stoneware, this striking fire surround has an unusual pale green glazed finish, bringing elegance and style to peri...

A large ‘Hopton Wood’ limestone moulded bolection chimneypiece fireplace with rectangular framed frieze and plinths. The chimneypiece is made up of three carved moulded lengths and ...

We are delighted to offer this lovely Victorian pitch pine & Gesso circa 1860 fire surround A very good looking and highly decorative fire surround, the gesso plaster detailing is...

A petite Louis XVI style fireplace in a variegated sienna marble. The shaped jambs with flutes inlaid with brass ormolu, surmounted by square ormolu paterae. The frieze with fluting,...

An Edwardian golden oak fire surround, reclaimed from a property in Yorkshire. Opening Height 106.5 cm Opening Width 116.5 cm Width between outside of legs...

A good quality antique carved Portland limestone fire surround reclaimed from a property in West Sussex. The cream stone colour of this beautiful fireplace, typical of the Portland v...

19th Century Fireplace Basket High Back Grate. Polished Brass, Brushed Steel Cast Iron Gog Grate. Decorative Brass Apron, Hand Turned Cast Fire Dogs. Blackened Steel Pain...

Rare 18th century antique French Louis XVI fireplace mantel. Hand-carved in desirable St Anne's marble. Delicately carved recessed Jambs and Frieze; with elegantly carved centre shel...

An ornate 19th century French cast iron fireplace. The large shell to centre with leafwork and scrolls to either side, the legs draped with festoons of foliage and fruit with intrica...

A very rare and important English 18th century (circa 1760) statuary and sienna marble fireplace with highly detailed carved centr...

A very large antique carved oak and grey Bardiglio marble mantelpiece. This is an extremely well carved English Palladian style oak fireplace of g...

A mid-19th century French Louis XVI style fireplace in Breche Violette marble. The shaped, stop-fluted jambs surmounted by carved square paterae...

Antique Georgian carved fireplace surround in pine. This wooden fireplace surround features finely carved detailing, reeded columns, a bow-fronted shelf and panelled frieze. A hand...

Of rare design and generous height, this chimneypiece is carved from fine Carrara marble. The lintel is comprised of two elements; the higher component has 3 simple corbel forms to...

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...

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...

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...

An antique carved walnut fireplace salvaged from a house in Bristol. This late Victorian fire surround has an elegant dark French polished finish and carved throughout. This fireplace will fit in seamlessly with the styling of modern and traditional properties alike. It has an original finish, the rich walnut colour complimenting its beauty. The centre tablet showcases a stylised foliage design accompanied by a fluted mantel...

Nineteenth century iron and brass fire grate, with arched back-plate and rococo apron centred by shell motif, on elegant foliate scroll legs. Restored, re-polished and ready to use ...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale simply put the finest Victorian Club Fender ever made with Nickle plated chrome Castle turrets and new Itali...

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

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...