IT'S NOT RARE FOR A FIREPLACE TO BE SIGNED, IT'S .... RAREST!
AND EVEN RARER (I KNOW YOU CAN'T SAY THAT, BUT WHEN IT TAKES, IT TAKES!!) IS THAT A FIREPLACE IS DATED BY ITS CREATORS, AS YOU WILL SEE BY SCROLLING THROUGH THE THOUSANDS OF PICTURES TAKEN OF THIS VERY FINE WORK OF ART OF DESIGN AND CRAFTSMANSHIP.
EVEN GREAT SIGNATURES SUCH AS THE ARCHITECT DESIGNER MAJORELLE ( WHO MADE IN HIS "USINE"-FACTORY IN NANCY ALL THE OBJECTS THAT AROSE FROM HIS PENCIL AND WAS, IN ESSENCE, THE VERSACE OR VALENTINO OF THE ART NOUVEAU PERIOD) SIGNED ONE MANTEL IN A THOUSAND OF HIS PRODUCTS, BASICALLY ONLY THOSE THAT SEEMED TO HIM TO BE EXCELLENCIES OR IMPORTANT NOVELTIES IN ART.
Instead, here we even have a double (NOR, “QUADRUPLICITY”) signature, FIRST that of the firm Irving & Casson ( the commissioning firm) of Boston, which in the back of the fireplace applied its label, AND THEN, drawn up in pencil writing, the certification of the two cabinetmakers and plasterers (Cobb and Wilson) who materially made this important fireplace.
SOME NOTES ON THE “MAISON” CREATOR/DESIGNER AND COMMISSIONER OF THIS FANTASTIC FIREPLACE:
Irving & Casson was a firm of interior designers and furniture makers in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1875. Its specialty was interior woodworking and corbels, but it also made furniture, mainly in 17th, 18th, and 19th century styles. In 1914 the company merged with A. H. Davenport Company, a furniture company located in Boston (both had plants in East Cambridge). After the merger, the company performed a number of commissions for Gothic Revival churches, including chapels at Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh. The firm's last major commission was the design and execution of the interior of the United Nations headquarters in New York, executed in the 1950s. Irving and Casson-A. H. Davenport Co. ceased operations in 1974.
SOME NOTES OF MY OWN:
Our fireplace was made of pine essence.
Its restoration involved essentially three elements:
(a) A missing plinth (as per the published photograph);
(b) The art stucco remaking of some sections of drapery;
(c) Its particular “repainting,” a “plastering” done by an ancient, artisanal method.
If the design of the Irving & Casson pair (the designer's, the designer's, the designer's, the client's, I wouldn't know what to call them given the many roles they play) was remarkable in terms of proportions, originality and elegance of architecture, plasticity of forms, the sculptural achievement of the other pair Cobb and Wilson (the artisan craftsmen cabinetmakers stucco decorators) was no less.
In this last regard, I will point out just one detail: It is not easy to give expression to faces (those of the numerous cupids) that have a diameter of.... 8 millimeters!!!
In short, a fine artistic pair!!!
Birth certificate of our fireplace:
Our fireplace was born, as per the written certification (SCREEN THE PICTURES AND YOU WILL SEE IT, ATTACHED TO THE BACK OF THE FIREPLACE), on April 11, 1893. This is the first time (How true,... it is such a shame to die!) and I never imagined that such an occurrence could happen to me, that of an ancient fireplace I recovered I could know even the exact day of its birth!
Its price.
I generally do not appreciate sellers who “weep in sorrow” over the price they themselves offer, I only intend, with these two very venal lines, to remark how the price of this very important artifact is much lower than it may appear at first glance. Only the import from America cost around 3000 € (For those who had doubts, verba volant facturae manent), then the restoration costs, and then, believe me, we even paid it to the American seller and not (as we usually do) stolen at night!!!
The fact is that in Italy a wooden fireplace even of such importance and such costs has a very limited marketability and therefore, as my friend Benini (chain store “Al Miracolo”) says, “Nobody gives away, we make do!”
If we had store in Paris or London (Cities where customers for wood-carved fireplaces are plentiful. In England they are even the overwhelming majority) we could ask for a much higher price FOR THIS AMAZING mantel...
