Of course, the Pyrenees can't compete with our Italian Apuan Alps when it comes to marble, but I must say that the Breach of this Pompadour Plat fireplace has a few arrows in its bow.
First, the small size of its clasts (don't you know what clasts are!? I knew you didn't know, I purposely used this sideral-technical term (so much “sideral” that it is not known even by most marble workers) to put on a little airs and take a step forward in the confidence that many readers unwisely place in my claims)...
What were we saying?
Ah, yes, the clasts....
The clasts are, quite simply, “the stones” of various colors that, leaning against each other, make up marble rocks which, once “sliced” (it's a little like mortadella... but Bolognese, eh, remember that!!), become slabs for the construction of chimneys.
In addition to their small size (I was going to write “their limited grain size” but for today, enough with the difficult words...) generally considered more pleasant by customers, I find very pleasant the delicacy of their colors (white, black, beige, pink) not at all violent and, let's say, “well basted” between them, as if they were one refined color.
Some curiosities about the history of this fireplace:
A) First of all, it should be said that this is a very rare mantel in French stylism built in France and not as happened to 99% of its brethren, which was carved in Italy (Lunigiana area).
B) Our fireplace was definitely carved in the Côte d'Azur (Nice or Marseilles area, port cities where a great deal of marble arrived at low cost and where, as a result, several sculpture workshops sprang up);
C) It is also interesting to me to point out to you that, at least in most cases, it was not the French citizens who gave of hammer and chisel and breathed marble dust from morning to night, but rather it was the Basques, very skilled stonemasons, who crossed the Pyrenean chain to “do the season” in Provence (and also in Burgundy, where they worked Pierre Dorée instead of marble);
D) Its discovery and related disassembly took place in Burgundy (Lyon).
So, to sum up, this fireplace is a fantastic “multi-ethnic mix”: Parisian design, Pyrenean marble, Basque sculpture, Burgundian owner and, why not, last user, you, our very American customer.
Concerning the date of birth of our Pompadour Plat mantel, we have no difficulty in identifying it as its “innards” (these are its internal stone or brick parts that, together with the only “mastic” known from the nineteenth century to the nineteenth century -gypsum- hold together the various marble parts that make up the fireplace) since, I said, its innards are a particular “ribbed square” in use between the last years of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth century, well known by insiders;
Its preservation is (read literally) perfect.
