WARNING:
THIS COMMENTARY IS FOR MALE READERS ONLY.
My dear friends, when you first see a woman, where do your eyes first run to rest?
Some answer “Ah, I look at her hands...” or “ For me, the first thing is the eyes” etc... etc...
All fairy tales, a man, when he sees a woman, immediately looks at her legs, hoping to find them of beautiful stride, perhaps long and harmonious... in a word, Sensual..
Well, dear men, in the case of this feminine fireplace (because the Louis XV fireplace is female, unequivocally..) you have made the right choice, it is the legs to look at first..
And the legs of this mantel are very slender, thigh strong but thin in just the right place, as you rarely get to see..
For the less knowledgeable, it will be easy to understand what I am talking about by comparing this with other Louis XV fireplaces on this site (never go to the competition, you would give me grief).
Given the legs, we can move on to its “dress,” the fabric of which is not the usual and yet sufficiently pleasing Ordinary Carrara White, but rather a very fine “Pure” quality Carrara White marble.
Speaking of Carrara Whites, whose scale of values is infinite, above this particular quality of White “P” there is only the mythical and perhaps too pretentious Statuario.
AGREED, MAURIZIO, THE LEGS OF THIS FIREPLACE ARE BEAUTIFUL AND, LET'S SAY, “ATTRACTIVE,” BUT YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH COMMENTING ON A FIREPLACE FOR WHICH YOU ASK SO MUCH MONEY, RIGHT!?
Quite right, my dear Jiminy Cricket, now I am going to write the actual commentary, starting with the name of this fireplace: Dauphin...
In the second and third pictures, looking at the top of the leg of our fireplace, you will be able to see the outline of a dolphin.
It is likely that the ancient architect “designer” of this model, tended to achieve, with his very skillful pencil, the elegance of the dolphin in every part of this fireplace and I like to believe that these profiles and this name are somehow a kind of thanks of the designer to the most intelligent and elegant animal being on the globe (excluding a certain Ferragni Chiara, who is apparently of such unmatched beauty and intelligence that she has twenty million decerebrate Italians “following”-apparently even in the bathroom-daily, thus decerebrating herself even more, if possible).
This specimen also has a feature that you rarely get to see, but to better clarify it I must inform you about one thing: Contrary to what is generally believed, the counter-heats did not fit into the fireplace AFTER its sculpture, but rather it was the sculptor who fit the chosen counter-hearth.
In fact, making a counter hearth for each chimney would have cost (blueprints, molds, individual castings etc..) A REAL FORTUNE. In short, the sculptor would follow the lines of the counter hearth.
That said, this time we can say that not only the lines of this artistic accessory were rightly followed, but also its depictions:
THE FIORELLINI DI CAMPO AND THE CONCHIGLIETTE THAT DECORATE THE COUNTERCUISE WERE REPRESENTED “PARO PARO” in the mantel sculpture.
The floral carvings are abundant and comment on themselves. Here I will be interested in pointing out how they are also present (and in clusters) on the legs ...
AND COME ON WITH THOSE LEGS!!!
What am I to do, my Jiminy Cricket, it's not my fault that this sculptor was a little manic no?!
Also interesting, though already seen in other important specimens, are the cartouches on the feet.... The elegance of a nice pair of shoes signed (hopefully not by Ferragni), never hurts.
The side plates are squared off (but this feature is present in ALMOST all specimens of this rank) and the bronze vents are very fine (to me they look like a pair of very fine earrings to emphasize the beauty of this blouse).
WHAT MORE NEED I SAY?
WELL, THE FIREPLACE IS IN PERFECT CONDITION (THIS IS NOT THE USUAL “SHOT” OF THE SELLER, THE CONDITION IS UNIMPEACHABLE), IT COMES FROM A DESIGN WITH PARISIAN STYLISM, IT WAS CARVED IN ITALY (PIETRASANTA AND/OR SURROUNDING AREAS) AND ITS ERA IS THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY.
POST SCRIPTUM:
SINCE MY FRIEND TALKING CRICKET MENTIONED THE “MANY DINARS” THAT WE ASK FOR THIS SPECIMEN, I WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY THIS POINT:
This fireplace could cost about €6,000 less if it did not have the ORIGINAL CAST IRON INSERT.
The 6,000 € is derived from this, easily understandable, account: 3,000 is the average cost of a good specimen of Baroque counter hearth, the other 3,000 is due to the fact that these two objects of art (fireplace and counter hearth) are in perfect symbiosis, twins not separated at birth, a couple SEARCHED by all the women of the world, led by their architects...Other than no-vax or no-pass, these viragos are no joke and pose a fearsome and real danger to husbands' wallets...BUT PRECISELY TO HUSBANDS I WANT TO OFFER A CONSOLATION:
5 YEARS AGO, EVEN THEN HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER, THESE FIREPLACES WITH THEIR OWN BACKSTOPS COST HALF AS MUCH AS THEY DO TODAY.
BUT I KNOW, AND I WANT TO CONFIDE TO YOU, THAT IN 5 YEARS' TIME THESE ARTISTIC “COUPLINGS” WILL NOT COST TWICE AS MUCH, BUT SOMETHING, MAYBE A LOT, MORE, THEY WILL CERTAINLY COST!!!
HOW DO I KNOW!?
WELL, EVERY DAY IT'S HARDER TO FIND THEM ON THE MARKET, IT'S NOW BECOMING IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THEM WHILE, ON THE CONTRARY, THE DEMAND IS INCREASING DAY BY DAY
AND TWO AND TWO MAKE FOUR, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!
