I FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS FIREPLACE AT FIRST SIGHT, JUST AS I FELL IN LOVE WITH MY WIFE THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER.
She was leaning out of a window and seemed framed by it, she was so beautiful.
I stopped my car (an Austin as old as the hills and miraculously still running—but… noblesse oblige… with tail fins!!! I was paying for it in sweaty instalments, but it was worth it, because it certainly made a fine impression…).
I stepped out and stood there looking at her in silence, while she pretended indifference toward the young man who was gazing at her with astonishment written all over his face.
“He who despises, buys,” I said to myself, and indeed, a few days later she became my fiancée.
The biggest problem is that afterwards… I married her. But… never mind.
Let us return to our fascinating fireplace, whose name is “Medusa’s Veil.”
It is composed of two elements: the marble mantel and its inner part (the insert, or opening frame if you prefer) in artistic cast iron.
Now then, although the marble mantel is already very charming in itself (later we shall also speak of its particular aesthetic subtleties—unknown to most, but well understood by the architect who designed this small yet great work of art, full of ingenuity and imagination), this marble frame alone could not truly capture your attention through the screen of your computer or phone and reach your heart like Cupid’s arrow.
It would not possess the same beauty, the same enchanting power, if it were not united with its insert.
Let us therefore turn to its magnificent “drapery,” that Medusa’s Veil so elegantly designed and sculpted.
It contains a secret which, as I wrote above, is difficult for most people to identify or discover. Its “heart,” or rather its inner design, follows the same elegant movements of the Saint-Jacques shell, the shell that is the very first decorative motif of the Louis XV style.
Yet the development of this “heart” does not follow traditional rules. Instead of completing the shell form through the usual lines of its valves, the design overturns tradition and drifts into suspended shapes, almost dreamlike—leaf-like clouds created by the imagination of the architect. These forms take inspiration from the floating movement of the Medusa’s veil, an animal that appears to us almost more mythical than real, one that inspires both fear and respect because of its mysterious beauty.
A small additional note concerning the marble:
Look carefully at the small shells on the sides of the front, and you will notice how even the curves composing their shells display a slight movement reminiscent of the floating motion of the jellyfish.
The quality and beauty of the marble of this fireplace (CALACATTA—OLDER THAN OLD…) are now especially appreciated by female buyers (about 99% of the clients capable of deciding the purchase). I do not even count the men—they will obediently comply with the female diktat without difficulty.
The artistic cast iron insert has a background decorated “à tapisserie,” essentially a pattern composed of hundreds (I have never counted them, but surely hundreds) of identical little flowers. This was done so that the background—the insert—would not distract with other figures or sculptures from the view of the principal subject, namely THE FIREPLACE.
THE ENTIRE PIECE IS IN PERFECT CONDITION, PARISIAN PROVENANCE, PIETRASANTA SCULPTURE FOR THE MARBLE PARTS, PARISIAN CASTING FOR THE INSERT, SECOND EMPIRE PERIOD.
P.S. I would like to add a small note regarding its price. The relatively high cost of this important example also depends on the fact that the combination of fireplace with its original insert is the object of an almost frenzied hunt by armies of refined women, themselves led by adventurous interior decorators—hungry troops eager to plunder the pockets of modern husbands.
