So nice in its size, this Louis Philippe "Palmettes" fireplace (a name deriving from its pair of Palm leaves that form its capitals...) was carved in Black Marquinia marble embellished with elegant white veining. Excellent condition, splendid patina, provenance Paris, 1840-60 era.
It is, our Louis Philippe, perhaps the most properly classical of nineteenth-century fireplaces, since its forms are, though reduced in size, more or less traced from the Italian Renaissance fireplaces, which in some ways they sought to emulate..
It inherits its "Renaissance" shape from the just-fashioned Charles X style, a style also referred to in Italy as "Late Empire." YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE SOME CHARLES X MANTELS IN THE "EMPIRE FIREPLACES” CATEGORY OF THIS WEBSITE, SO IT WILL BE CLEARER TO YOU WHAT I AM WRITING HERE.
From the Charles X fireplace it also takes (and the Louis Louis Philippe style will adopt this system in each of its mantels...) the classic “smoke shot,” that slit, that gap between the two front bars that made sure that any smoke that came out of the hearth was (as far as possible..) caught by the hair and brought back into the fold..
This fireplace had a good spread throughout Europe, with particular fondness for France and the Netherlands. For the vast majority of mantels it was built in White Carrara marble, for the remainder in every known and...unknown marble. We have several Palmettes in black marble because we search for them in the Netherlands and Belgium (there they are found in BELGIAN BLACK MARBLE) or in PROVENCE (there they are found in BLACK MARQUINIA marble, given the proximity to the Pyrenees, mountains from which this specific marble is quarried).
A CURIOSITY:
ARE YOU FROM FLORENCE, MONACO, PARIS, ROME OR CAPRI?!
WELL, YOU CAN ADMIRE SEVERAL PALMETTES FIREPLACES LIVE BY ENTERING THE SUITES OF JK HOTELS IN THOSE CITIES...
IF THESE FIREPLACES ARE LOVED BY THE DESIGNER THAT THIS CHAIN OF HOTELS OWNS (AND ITS DECORATORS/ARCHITECTS ETC...), THIS IS TO BE CONSIDERED A GUARANTEE OF THEIR TIMELESS BEAUTY… DOESN’T IT?!
