BETWEEN ART NOUVEAU AND ART DECO, VERY RARE EXAMPLE OF A HANGING FIREPLACE, 1925-340 PERIOD, CARVED IN LUNEL MARBLE, PROVENANCE CANNES, PERFECT PRESERVATION.
How many things there would be to say about this unobtainable fireplace (which perhaps it would be more correct to call a “hearth frame”), and all of them come to my mind at once, in a strange excitement that always seizes me when I have in my hands “something” really rare, and interesting, as rare and always interesting as “suspended” fireplaces are..
Let's do this, I'll write down for you below, in no order of importance (assuming there is one... for me all the things I have to tell you are important...) what is of my knowledge about this original and fancy mantel:
1) It comes from an Art Deco house in Cannes, a place where, perhaps because people went there on vacation, it must have seemed “easier” to the client, to indulge in the stylistic adventure of a hanging fireplace... Eh, yes, it took a certain amount of courage for such a (happily) daring choice.. And when on vacation, it also happens to us poor mortals who home in Cannes we don't own, to feel more free, brave, and willing to some “nonsense..” Or do we!
2) It is, for sure, what is called “one-of-a-kind..” At that time, in fact, it was the designer of the house who also designed the fireplaces that would be contained there.... And besides, no fireplace manufacturer would ever mass-produce such a hard-to-sell fireplace, better to stay on the more commercial classic.
3) On the sides of the oval, which result in the classic “rope” color of Lunel marble, you see those “triangles” in other color.. Well, the difference in color is given only by the different finish of the same marble.... In the oval and the decorative cartouches the marble has been polished (and has a great patina..), while in the flat parts (the “triangles”) the marble surfaces have been “hammered” so that they come to a different, lighter color.. It was intended, in short, to make the carved (and more important) part stand out from the background part, reserved more for the practical setting up of the fireplace itself. It is in these four side parts, in fact, that the holes for attachment to the wall are located....
The nails were not there, but they were certainly of the “full moon” type, that is, with a smooth and rounded surface... it will be your taste, or that of your architect, to choose how to “nail” this object of art... Nail chapel burnished?! gilded? Bronze? It will be up to you, or the combination with your other furnishings or decorating details....
4) Stylistically, we could define this fireplace as belonging to Art Nouveau, a broader category that combines both Art Nouveau and Deco, a kind of “broad understanding” more prolific and satisfying than what happens in the political arena, especially if Italian
LAST “TECHNICAL” NOTE:
THIS SPECIFIC MANTEL WAS MOUNTED IN ITS HORIZONTAL SENSE (WIDTH 96), BUT NOTHING PROHIBITS, THIS OBJECT BEING “REVERSE,” THAT IT COULD BE MOUNTED IN ITS SHORTER SENSE (CM 84). PERFECT ITS PRESERVATION.
