If you are really interested in a fireplace in this fascinating and mysterious as well as precious marble from a closed quarry (FROM AT LEAST ONE CENTURY), I ask you to make the effort to read this sheet, which I have kept as concise as possible..
SPECIFIC NOTES ON THE MARBLE 'BRÈCHE D'ALEPH'
(News collected mainly from the ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale) Museum)
An ornamental stone characterized by a bright red background, containing yellow, reddish, gray or brown patches (clasts), having an angular shape and very variable sizes, from millimeters to decimeters.
Apparently, the name Aleppo Breccia derives from the locality of Alet, near Aix-en-Provence in France, formerly mistakenly believed to be the place of origin of this lithotype. Stonemasons referred to it generically as Ancient Breccia. Provenance Greece, Kiriès locality. There is no certain information as to when the quarrying of said marble ended, I personally identify it between the late nineteenth century (because in the course of my life among ancient fireplaces I have found more than once specimens that can be traced with certainty to that era) and the early twentieth century (never seen an ancient twentieth-century fireplace in Breccia d'Aleppo or Breche d'Alep as the French, great users and greatest admirers of this marble, call it).
IT CAME FROM GREECE, THEN, THE MARBLE FROM WHICH THIS FIREPLACE WAS MADE.... FROM GREECE A SHIP WOULD BRING A BLOCK OF MARBLE TO THE PORT OF CARRARA.. THERE IT WAS UNLOADED AND THEN, ON A WAGON PULLED BY HORSES OR MULES, TAKEN TO THE SCULPTURE LABORATORY THAT WOULD, WITH THAT BOULDER AND FOLLOWING THE DRAWINGS OF THAT FUSSY PARISIAN ARCHITECT, THE PRECIOUS MANTEL YOU ARE LOOKING AT..
THE VARIOUS CARVED PIECES WERE THEN WELL HOUSED IN WOODEN CRATES, BEDDED WITH STRAW, AND PUT BACK ON THE WAGON WORKING BY ANIMAL POWER, DESTINATION STILL THE PORT OF CARRARA.. FROM HERE A SHIP WOULD TAKE THOSE PIECES TO THE FRENCH PORT NEAREST THE WORKSHOP OF THE ARCHITECT WHO COMMISSIONED THE FIREPLACE IN QUESTION....
ANOTHER UNLOADING, A FEW HUNDRED KILOMETERS ON ANOTHER WAGON (DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE TIME, LABORS AND COSTS INVOLVED IN ALL THIS?!) AND FINALLY THE VARIOUS PIECES THAT MADE UP THAT FIREPLACE MANTEL WERE IN THAT WORKSHOP ASSEMBLED THROUGH “INNARDS” IN NATURAL REFRACTORY STONE OR BRICK ( THE INNARDS WOULD BE THE STRUCTURE OF THE FIREPLACE..), ALL JOINED TOGETHER THROUGH THE ONLY MASTIC OF ANTIQUITY, PLASTER.
BUT THE JOURNEY OF THESE GREEK MARBLES WAS NOT YET OVER, THE FIREPLACE, IN FACT, HAD TO REACH THE CUSTOMER WHO HAD PURCHASED IT (IN PARIS, BRUSSELS OR TURIN, WHO KNOWS EVER..), AND BE PLACED IN THE HOUSE IN WHICH WE LATER FOUND IT..
ALL THAT I HAVE SLAVISHLY (AND PERHAPS EVEN TEDIOUSLY...) TOLD YOU IS TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND A LITTLE OF ITS HISTORY, THE COSTS AND LABORS THROUGH WHICH IT WAS ACHIEVED, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, TO MAKE OF A DISTANT “PIECE OF STONE” A SMALL WORK OF ART, WHICH CAN NOW BE YOURS FOR A THOUSANDTH OF THE COSTS AND LABORS ENUMERATED ABOVE...
NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT ITS STONES HAVE A CONSIDERABLE INTRINSIC VALUE (AND INCREASING..) SINCE IT IS A MARBLE WHOSE QUARRYING ENDED MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO...
ADDITIONAL ESSENTIAL INFORMATIONS ABOUT THIS BEAUTIFUL ANTIQUE MARBLE FIREPLACE MANTEL: PARISIAN PROVENANCE, EXCELLENT CONDITION, SCULPTURE FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY.
