AND PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME…
“Maurizio, but this fireplace—so simple and modest, and above all so small… it seems rather expensive, don’t you think?”
No, my dear ladies, I do not think it is expensive. On the contrary!
Here is what I answer regarding its apparently “substantial” price:
You should know that this example involves the same fixed costs as a fireplace priced at €10,000 or €20,000. It costs exactly the same to dismantle it (and just try doing it yourselves on the fifth floor of a Parisian apartment under renovation, without an elevator—and even if there were one, the porter would be standing guard and might very well shoot you at the elevator door if you attempted to use it for such a vile purpose as lowering a fireplace to the ground!). It costs the same to transport it and the same to restore it.
It also costs exactly the same to pack it and deliver it to you (“door to door,” the third and last expression I know in the language of perfidious Albion after YES and LOVE) right to your home—something that we generally do personally, not through modern shipping companies such as Amazon or the like.
IN SIMPLE WORDS, WE TREAT IT LIKE A KING, EXACTLY AS WE DO ITS BIG BROTHER WORTH €10,000, BECAUSE “HE” (OUR POMPADOUR FIREPLACE) IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS ALL THE OTHERS—AND I WILL ADD EVEN MORE: WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT HIS CHARACTER IS HIS TREMENDOUS CHARM AND LIKEABILITY!
I had long been waiting for the right moment to speak about these small economic realities behind the scenes, and today the moment has arrived. But I must also add one more formidable arrow to the bow of my delightful little fireplace:
HE IS VERY, VERY SMALL!
Finding fireplaces of such small size is extremely difficult, and when you do find them, they always cost more than their larger brothers of the same model.
That is simply the law of the market: the smaller sizes are the most sought-after today, and therefore their price rises.
AND THEN, MY DEAR LADIES, REMEMBER THIS: WHEN TWO FIREPLACES SHARE THE SAME MODEL, THE SMALLER ONE IS ALWAYS THE MORE CHARMING AND DELIGHTFUL…
OURS, HOWEVER, GOES EVEN FURTHER—IT IS IRRESISTIBLY CHARMING!
DISCOVERED IN PARIS, IN EXCELLENT OVERALL CONDITION, CARVED IN FINELY VEINED BIANCO CARRARA MARBLE, “BELLE ÉPOQUE” PERIOD (LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY).
