Versailles is, par excellence, the most beautiful house in the world.
The Palace of Versailles (2300 rooms and 1260 fireplaces in addition to a small park of eight million square meters) is the best known and most desired mansion in the world.
It was built by the young Bourbon Louis XIV (he who would later become the Sun King) in the second half of the 1600s with the sole purpose of making the other royal families of Europe and elsewhere crack with envy (which he succeeded in doing very well).
Well, although I know that you will not believe me out of the blue (but you will find certain and clear proof of this statement of mine in this very card), you, by purchasing this fireplace, will have the chance to be in turn envied by the Sun King himself, assuming, of course, that his spirit, from up there, can see you.
Since I know (I am speaking to the women, who go into raptures at the mere hearing of the word Versailles) that you are now more curious than ever about how you could ever make the Sun King and his consort envious, I will not keep you on the edge of your seat: Scroll through the series of photographs placed above this commentary and in the last two images you will see both the Hall of Mars in its grandiose completeness and the fireplace, contained therein, which moved our mid-nineteenth-century sculptor to make a copy of it..
See!
Does it seem to you that the marble of Louis XIV's fireplace (it is called “Bois Jourdan” and was quarried in the Northwest of France) can remotely compete with the very noble Noir Marquinia“” of the fireplace I am presenting here?!
Quite another thing, quite another class, quite another refinement. If in the sphere of Noir Marquinia we speak of Nobility, of refined off-white lace, in the case of the Bois Jourdan we are at the level of the proletariat.
But, another very important thing in my opinion, which, if anything, would make the scales of any judge tilt vertiginously in our favor, lies in the fascinating cast-iron counter hearth of art (also ancient and coeval to the fireplace as well as of great quality of design) with which our fireplace can be equipped and enriched.
The Versailles fireplace does not even have a counter hearth, and we are thus, TWO TO ZERO FOR OUR PARTY.
A FEW NOTES ON THE VERY NICE SCULPTOR OF OUR FIREPLACE:
The one who carved in Noir Marquinia marble the fireplace I am presenting to you is the mythical Boudin, a sympathetic “fanatic” of French Grandeur, of Napoleon in particular, but also (and he couldn't help but be) of the equally mythical Sun King, Louis XIV, the one who with Versailles realized the most beautiful Maison in the world.
Well, this gentleman and sculptor was rather “autarkic” and it was not easy to get him to carve a fireplace in non-native marbles, however, this time he had to yield (and I am sure that never was a more pleasing rendering) to the happy chromaticism of our Marquinia, a most noble mixture of Black and White that had so fascinated150 years ago and so much fascinates interior decorators all over Europe even today.
I feel like saying that our Boudin (you may think I'm crazy but...it's been more than four decades that I've been stroking this gentleman's fireplaces and sometimes I feel like I know with certainty what he was thinking when he was working.... I mean... I empathize, with a confidence that surprises myself first...) I would say, I was saying, that Boudin decided on the use of Noir Marquinia marble partly because of its remarkable hardness (which is the prime strength of marble) and its equally remarkable polishability..
Boudin fireplaces, in fact, may or may not be liked, but they are always of great construction quality, no sparing was made in the sculpture workshops of this sculptor/builder (in the heyday these sculpture places were two, one in Nice and one in Marseilles), the thicknesses were important and the marbles had to be first-rate, and since Our Marquinia Venato was one of the top of the class, well, two and two make four...
LOUIS XIV STYLISM, BLUE COAST PROVENANCE, CARVING PERIOD 1840-60, PERFECT (LITERALLY PERFECT) PRESERVATION.
P.S: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE “CARVED” DECORATIONS ON THE COUNTERSCULPTURE, AN ARCH IN THE BACKGROUND, A TORCH AND A QUIVER CROSSED WITH EACH OTHER AND RESTING ON THE ARCH ITSELF.
PUT THE CHILDREN TO BED AND I WILL EXPLAIN WHAT THEIR MESSAGE IS:
The FIACCOLA represents LOVE PASSION, not courtly, fourteenth-century Love, much less Platonic Love.Word to the wise.
THE QUIVER represents the lining par excellence and that is the female sex tout-court....
AND THE ARROWS, IN GREAT NUMBERS CONTAINED IN THE QUIVER.... WHAT DO THEY REPRESENT!?
Well, my dear readers and readers, DON'T MAKE ME CONFESS EVERYTHING, MY PUDDLE IS AFFECTED, use a little imagination too. OK?!
JUST TO CLOSE IN AN ELEGANT AND NON-COARSE WAY THIS DISCOURSE THAT IS MAKING MY CHEEKS BLUSH, PLEASE KNOW THAT THE ARCH IN THE BACKGROUND, THE ARCH ON WHICH THE TWO MOST MISCHIEVOUS DECORATIVE ELEMENTS POSE AND OF WHICH WE HAVE SO FAR DISCUSSED, IS THE ARCH OF EROS AND NOT THAT OF CUPID...
