IT’S SO CHARMING — DISCREET, ELEGANT, BUT NEVER PRETENTIOUS — THIS LOUIS XV “POMPADOUR PLAT” FIREPLACE FROM THE LATE 1800s, THAT I FEEL LIKE AWARDING IT FIRST PLACE ON THE PODIUM, AHEAD OF THEM ALL!!
We purchased this fireplace while it was still in its Parisian home, tucked in a corner, a little confused, as if trying to understand what was happening to it — its mind filled with all the noise and dust of a full-blown renovation.
When Patrick (an excellent and highly experienced French colleague of mine) and I arrived, we did our best to reassure it a bit… and then, gently, we carried it away from the chaos.
We even managed to save the original plaque au sol — the marble base you can see beneath it in the main photo on this page.
A curiosity:
Do you know what that marble base was really for?
Everyone assumes it was to protect the oak wood floors (which were standard in 19th-century bourgeois homes) from stray sparks.
But in truth, sparks don’t always land conveniently within 30–35 cm — often, they’d leap a full meter ahead and land squarely on the living room sofa...
No, the plaque au sol actually served a more practical purpose: protecting the wooden floor from ash spills during fireplace cleaning.
Back then (forgive me, dear feminists reading this), it was always the woman of the house who tended to the fire — men had more "important" things on their minds (or so they claimed).
So, when the woman scooped the ashes with a small shovel, a bit of ash would inevitably fall to the floor. And that precious oak flooring, with its tiny gaps and grain, would quickly absorb the dust and darken — right there in front of the fireplace. But if the ash fell on marble, as it did on this base, it could be easily swept away.
Got it now?
I also called this Pompadour Plat elegant earlier in the listing — and with good reason: unlike 99% of other fireplaces in this style, which usually have completely smooth side panels, this one is adorned with elegant fluting, finely carved into the marble.
Last night, while watching one of the countless news shows going on about Trump’s tariffs, I heard the most unbelievable story:
Apparently, thanks to some obscure legal technicality, a judge in France ordered a baker to rehire an apprentice whom he had previously fired — because the boy had been caught sleeping with the baker’s wife, proudly boasting about it afterward in the local bar.
Knowing full well his boss would be tied up for another couple of hours waiting for the dough to rise, this lively young man was meanwhile performing other types of "rising" with the baker’s wife...
The judge ruled that this was a private matter that had no impact on his professional performance.
So, the poor baker had to go back to kneading baguettes next to the guy who'd given him horns.
That reminded me of a similar case I read years ago in the US:
A husband stopped paying for his wife’s psychiatrist after discovering that her “miraculous recovery from frigidity” had come thanks to the therapist himself, who had been generously applying his own therapeutic techniques.
The court not only ruled against the husband — but also ordered him to continue paying for additional sessions to prevent a relapse!
(You couldn’t make this stuff up.)
Why am I telling you all this?
Because, absurd as it sounds, these stories seem like the perfect metaphor for how far Western society has fallen in terms of morality, culture, and plain old common sense.
And that brings me back to this fireplace.
It’s astonishing to think that a hand-sculpted, late 19th-century antique fireplace, made from real marble, cut and carved by hand, costs €2,000 to €3,000…
Meanwhile, a machine-milled reproduction, mass-produced in China (or thereabouts), marketed as “in the style of”, will easily cost double.
Sometimes I feel like the collective brain of the West — Italians especially — has been completely pulverised.
Tell me if I’m wrong. Because I’m really starting to lose my bearings.
LATE 19th CENTURY. FRENCH STYLE. AND (UNBELIEVABLY!!) THIS PIECE WAS SCULPTED IN FRANCE — NOT IN ITALY, AS WAS COMMON PRACTICE AT THE TIME. ORIGIN: FRENCH RIVIERA. PERFECT CONDITION. THE PRICE? RIDICULOUSLY LOW.
