I HAVE NAMED IT “THE LITTLE PRINCE," IT IS A SCULPTURAL MARVEL AT 108 CM WIDE.
THIS FIREPLACE IS TO BE CONSIDERED A "UNIQUE PIECE," THAT IS, DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY AND SOLELY FOR A SPECIFIC CLIENT, PROBABLY A VERY WEALTHY BERLUSCA OF THE TIME BECAUSE A "CUSTOM-MADE FIREPLACE" AT MOST WAS MADE FOR A REPRESENTATIVE ENVIRONMENT ("THE LIVING ROOM")AND NEVER FOR A SMALL OR MEDIUM SIZED ROOM, SUCH AS A STUDY, A SMALL ENTRANCE HALL, A BEDROOM AND SO ON..
IN SHORT, THIS SPECIMEN IS NOTHING BUT A REAL...OUTLIER.
NOT ONLY THAT: THIS FIREPLACE MANTEL WAS MADE BY A SCULPTOR WHO WAS PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED WITH THE CAST IRON INSERT ON WHICH TO MODEL THE FORMS OF THE FIREPLACE ITSELF. ONLY IN THIS WAY CAN THE MOUTH-TIGHTENING ACCESSORY PERFECTLY ADHERE TO THE FORMS OF THE CHIMNEY TO WHICH IT IS COUPLED.
NOT ONLY THAT: THE COUNTER HEARTH WAS NOT JUST ANY CAST IRON INSERT, IT WAS THE ULTIMATE IN COUNTER HEARTHS, A VERY FINE SPECIMEN FROM THE PARISIAN “LARCHER” FOUNDRY, IN ESSENCE THE FERRARI IN THE FIELD OF ARTISTIC CASTINGS.
PROVENANCE PARIS, ITALIAN SCULPTURE (PIETRASANTA DOCET), LATE 19TH CENTURY PERIOD (THE FIRST WINDS OF ART NOUVEAU WERE COMING) PERFECT PRESERVATION, PRICE ONLY APPARENTLY HIGH (CALL ME, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS THE LATTER SUBJECT, I WILL BE HAPPY TO DO THE MATH WITH YOU).
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL (INDEED, IN MY OPINION, SOMETHING MORE--DOESN'T IT ALSO SEEM TO YOU THAT ITS MEASURABLES ALSO MAKE IT PARTICULARLY... SIMPATIC?!)
I should write a novelette, and space is a tyrant, but it is necessary for me to tell you how in my storeroom, among 700/800 antique fireplaces of which at least 300 are in the Louis XV style, there is not one that combines a decent decorative load with such Lilliputian dimensions...
More or less, this mantel represents the squaring of the circle....
What, in fact, do flocks of women looking for when buying a fireplace?
They are essentially looking for said fireplace TO BE SMALL AND BEAUTIFUL.
But unfortunately, in the nineteenth century, highly decorated fireplaces were reserved for salons, basically reception rooms, which were...BIG.
Only the Scrooge McDuckies could afford to spend large sums of money to endow even bedrooms or modestly sized rooms, such as parlors and studies, with such sculptural works..
This fortune has happened to us (and to you who read me.), a little like winning the Mega Millions jackpot, it is up to you to make the economic effort to catch it (the fortune, I mean).
I can help you psychologically: This gorgeous antique fine, perfect and very nice fireplace will cost you a little more than half of the nicest fireplace in the various catalogs of style reproductions...
I'm talking about fireplaces made tonight in China at a thousand at a time, advertised in the thousands of decorating magazines and sold in the hundreds of “modern” fireplace retailers...
Here, cast your minds back to what I wrote above, then you tell me if this specific fireplace mantel, handmade by an old-fashioned Pietrasanta sculptor, hand-polished with pumice stone (several days just to polish it...) is not worth 10 or 100 times more than the modern almond-eyed abominations!
