I called the size (125 cm) of this fireplace “interesting” because this mantel is not too large that it cannot be located in a bedroom, nor is it too small that it cannot be displayed in a modern (an adjective that stands for “of limited size,” as are, after all, today's rooms)
A kind of joker, in short.
Incidentally, it must be said that this was also the preferred size in the nineteenth century, but at that time, said fireplace was to be mounted almost exclusively in bedrooms, and perhaps this is why this model almost always has this size.
Who knows why, when I think of the Pompadour Galbé I picture it in these precise proportions, it seems to me that it is more fascinating if it is in a measure of 125 cm instead of, what do I know, 140 cm wide...
But maybe it's just me being weird, after all, this model is fascinating in all its measurements.... It is a female mantel and femal mantels, like women in general, can be big and beautiful but also small and beautiful, it is always a matter of proportion.
The specimen I offer now is in PERFECT CONDITION OF CONSERVATION, it was built in a White Carrara marble that, it is true, has some gray cloudiness, but it has a background of pure white and not gray.
Today I am in the mood to defend this model, a model that modern antiquarians (the ones who..cashmere jacket, mousy erre and rolex -often fake- on their wrists) consider “too seen” (and what does that mean, except that it was “too liked”?!) and I bring to my protégé's defense two very important testimonies in its favor.
The first one is offered to us by the publication in AD magazine (a kind of Bible -no? -of Architecture) of the house of a certain Mr. Colombo Mario (doesn't this name ring a bell? He is the owner of “COLMAR,” a man who certainly does not lack taste). Well, the photograph that immortalizes him (in a good way, of course) in that publication depicts our Mario leaning against the floorboard of a fantastic and very elegant...POMPADOUR GALBE' IN WHITE CARRARA MARBLE!!!
COMING FROM A PARISIAN DISMANTLING, THIS SPECIMEN, BORN IN THE LAST DECADES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IN AN ITALIAN SCULPTURE WORKSHOP (LUNIGIANA DOCET), IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION OF PRESERVATION AND PATINA.
