I SAW THE LAST SPECIMEN OF THIS MODEL 35-40 YEARS AGO, WHEN I STILL HAD A NICE DARK FORELOCK (NOT QUITE ELVIS PRESLEY STYLE BUT ALMOST...) AND I WAS BY THEN CERTAIN THAT THERE WERE NO MORE EXAMPLES OF THIS SERIES OF FIREPLACES IN CIRCULATION.
AND SO, WHEN I SAW THE SPECIFIC FIREPLACE THAT I AM PRESENTING TO YOU REAPPEAR, I SAW MYSELF AS A YOUNG MAN AGAIN, AS I WANDERED WITH ALMOST VOLUPTUOUS PLEASURE AMONG THE CONSTRUCTION SITES OF PARIS IN SEARCH OF FIREPLACES TO DISMANTLE..
THAT WAS A BELLE EPOQUE!!!
Whatever, better to let go of these memories, which bring melancholy, better to devote ourselves to illustrating in its many details this very rare and very fine fireplace.
First of all, it must be said that, of this “Escargot” series, only the first examples produced had a marble top while, after a few years of production, the Larcher family decided to replace the marble top with a cast-iron one (which cost them much less) and so the vast majority of these fireplaces bear a cast-iron “hat.”
WHY IS IT, YOU MAY ASK, THAT THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES WORE MARBLE ON THE TOP AND NOT CAST IRON?
Well, the reason is simple, and it concerns all the various models of cast iron fireplaces of this brand: Before the last years of the nineteenth century there were no cast iron fireplace frames, only marble, stone and wood frames.
In order to be more likely to be liked by customers, considering that the hearth top was considered by its owners to be no more and no less than a console table on which to place paintings, mirrors, clocks, daguerreotypes and various trinkets, the makers of these very modern and hitherto unknown cast-iron fireplaces frames proposed products that had a marble top, a more familiar supporting surface than a cold and unknown cast-iron top. Then, as often happens, customers became accustomed to these modern and graceful fireplaces and accepted that the top could also be made of cast iron.
OUR MANTEL, THEREFORE, WITH ITS VERY FINE BLACK MARQUINIA MARBLE VEINED TOP, IS TO BE CONSIDERED ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES TO COME OUT OF THE FINEST FOUNDRY IN PARIS AND MOST LIKELY MADE IN THE LAST 10-15 YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
AFTER HAVING BORED YOU WITH SOME HISTORICAL ELEMENTS (WHICH IN ANY CASE SEEM TO ME TO BE IMPORTANT FOR A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THIS HIGHLY ORIGINAL FIREPLACE), LET US EXAMINE IT IN ITS DECORATIVE AND SYMBOLIC PARTICLES (THERE IS NO DECORATION, IN ANTIQUITY, THAT DOES NOT ALSO IMPLY A MEANING).
LET US START AT THE TOP AND MOVE DOWNWARD.
A) IN THE FIRST HORIZONTAL BAND OF DECORATIONS, INTERSPERSED WITH AN AIR GRID ADJUSTABLE BY TWO KNOBS, WE HAVE THE CLASSIC “PARIS ROSETTES” AT THE SIDES AND, A VERY RARE DECORATION TO BE FOUND, THE SO-CALLED “LIGHT OF LIFE,” IN THIS CASE PLACED BEHIND THE FACE OF CHRIST AND REPRESENTED BY RAYS WITH THORN-LIKE FEATURES.
FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE, LOOKING UP TO GOD MEANS RECEIVING VITAL ILLUMINATION FROM HIM. WOE TO THOSE WHO (ALWAYS FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE, EH..) TOWARD THE DIVINE DO NOT TURN THEIR EYES, THEY WILL NEVER RECEIVE THIS SACRED ILLUMINATION.
SO, YOU SEE, WHEN IN DOUBT . HAVING THIS FIREPLACE IN THE HOUSE IS, PERHAPS, A GUARANTEE....
B) IMMEDIATELY UNDER THIS GRID, A ROW OF “BALLS” (My talking cricket: AS YOU ARE GREAT, YOU SAY... “PERLAGE”. AT THE LIMIT, YOU COULD WRITE “A ROW OF PEARLS”) DIVIDED ONE FROM THE OTHER BY A RIBBON, A KIND OF BRAID. THE FRENCH CALL THIS DECORATIVE BRAID “MACARON.”
THIS AT LEAST SEEMINGLY ENDLESS BRAID IS NOTHING BUT A WISH FOR LONG (ALMOST ENDLESS) LIFE.
C) “ESCARGOT” IS THE NAME GIVEN BY THE PARISIANS TO THE FIREPLACE ITSELF AND IS THE NAME OF A CLASSICAL DECORATIVE ELEMENT, WHICH IN THIS FIREPLACE APPEARS IN THE HORIZONTAL BAND IMMEDIATELY BELOW THE “BALLS” WE WROTE ABOUT ABOVE.
THE SYMBOLISM THAT THIS ROW OF PATIENT SNAILS REPRESENTS DERIVES FROM MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND MEANS, “RICHES MUST BE ATTAINED WITHOUT HASTE AND WITH ALL CAUTION, HASTE IS BAD COUNSEL” IN ESSENCE, IT CLOSELY RESEMBLES OUR MODERN MOTTO “HE WHO GOES SLOW GOES STEADY AND FAR.”
D) IMMEDIATELY BELOW THE PROCESSION OF SNAILS WE HAVE A HORIZONTAL BAND ALL DECORATED (USING THE “A TAPISSERIE” METHOD) BY A CARPET OF LAUREL LEAVES, WHICH REPRESENT POWER, VICTORY, GLORY, AND, JUST TO MAKE SURE WE DON'T MISS ANYTHING, EVEN IMMORTALITY.
NOW, ABANDONING THE HORIZONTAL BANDS, WE GO TO THE SIDES, IN WHOSE VERTICAL BANDS WE FIND NONE OTHER THAN THE CLASSIC “TIRSO,” THE STAFF OF COMMAND INITIALLY ATTRIBUTED TO DIONYSIUS (WIKIPEDIA DOCET: Proper attribute of Dionysus and his followers, Satyrs and Bacchae, consisting mostly of a tall staff, almost a scepter, surmounted by a vilus of ivy leaves in the form of a pine cone. Proper attribute of Dionysus and his followers, Satyrs and Bacchae, consisting mostly of a tall staff, almost a scepter, surmounted by a vilus of ivy leaves in the form of a pine cone) BUT THEN ADOPTED MORE OR LESS BY ALL WESTERN CIVILIZATIONS, BEHIND THE VATICAN, IN WHICH STATE EXISTS THE GREATEST RAFFIGURATION OF THE PIGNA ON THE EARTHLY GLOBE.
THE PINE CONE, TAKEN BY ITSELF, IS A SYMBOL OF IMMORTALITY AND/OR REBIRTH, IN SHORT, IN OUR CASE, A WISH FOR LONG LIFE TO THE OWNERS OF OUR FIREPLACE.
TO BE PRECISE, IN THE CASE OF “OUR” STAFF OF COMMAND, THE TANGLE OF LEAVES AND BRANCHES THAT SURROUNDS THE STAFF ITSELF COMES FROM THE OLIVE TREE AND NOT IVY.
I HAVE LEFT FOR LAST THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CENTRAL PART OF THE FIREPLACE, WHERE THERE IS THAT BEAUTIFUL ARCHED MOUTH OF THE HEARTH WITH ITS HARMONIOUS LINES SURROUNDED BY A VERY FINE PARLAGE DECORATION.
AT THE TOP OF THE HEARTH/OPENING WE HAVE THE CLASSIC COAT OF ARMS OF THE LARCHER FAMILY WHICH BEARS, BETWEEN THE WORDS LARCHER AND PARIS (UNFAILING AS THIS PAIR OF WORDS WAS THEIR SIGNATURE) THE "CODE NUMBER" OF THIS SPECIFIC FIREPLACE.
PARISIAN PROVENANCE, PERFECT STATE OF PRESERVATION, PERIOD LAST YEARS OF THE 19TH CENTURY.
