“LOUIS QUINZE COQUILLE”. By this definition are appended all Louis XV style fireplaces which possess, as decoration, only ONE shell in the center of the frieze and NOTHING ELSE.
Normally, since the carving of a shell cannot be done by just any stonemason, nor by the garçon/apprentice of a sculpture workshop, generally the Louis XV fireplace that bears on its front such a work of art is a more important model than our Pompadour Plat, who may be sympathetic to us (I would dedicate a monument to him because it is with the Pompadour Plat that, because of its low cost, the petit-bourgeois class has “fireplaces”), but, let's face it,it is not one of the richest models of the nineteenth-century Baroque. At this point, our “Plat” with a shell on the title page (and what a shell!) is a little like the one-in-a-thousand that makes it,“ in short, it is extremely rare.In less than a handful of years I will be turning fifty ( ”and manic” ...suggests my wife who is spying, here behind me, on what I am writing...) in the area of antique fireplaces and NEVER IN MY LIFE have I seen a Pompadour Plat specimen with such fine sculpture.
I don't know if from the published photographs (however well taken to the best of our ability) you can get a good look at the very fine ribbing, parallel to each other, that covers the entire surface of our shell, what I can assure you is that said fine workmanship makes the shell itself VERY truthful. If you will not laugh, I will tell you what my first (and perhaps puerile) impression was: I THOUGHT. “GOOD GOD, THIS MANTEL HAS A FACE!!!” Don't make fun of me because chances are high that the same thing will happen to you too if you ever come to meet him.
PARIS WAS HIS HIMSELF DUE TO THE END OF THE DECADE OF THE 19TH CENTURY, THE LAND OF THE LUNI (LA LUNIGIANA) IS THE ITALIC LAND THAT BIRTHED HIM, WE HAVE ONLY DISMANTLED AND “IMBELLETED” (Can it be said that way?! Well, let's hope...) BECAUSE IT WAS OF A SANE AND ROBUST CONSTITUTION AND VERY GOOD PRESERVATION.
