The example I am presenting here is among the smallest “Trois Coquilles” fireplace mantels in our collection and it is precisely because of this rather unusual quality that it appears more charming, more elegant and somehow more captivating than its larger brothers.
I mention this particular feature immediately because, while it is true that 150 years ago the Trois Coquilles fireplace was generally commissioned in far grander proportions — intended for formal reception rooms rather than bedrooms — it is equally true that, within the same model family, the smaller examples are almost always the most delightful.
And beyond this, we should remember that nineteenth-century interiors were considerably larger than modern homes, whose proportions naturally suit a fireplace mantel of this scale far better.
Indeed, unless my increasingly unreliable memory betrays me, I believe this may well be the smallest Trois Coquilles fireplace in our warehouse — a collection comprising roughly thirty examples from this stylistic family, all closely related yet no two identical, with widths ranging from 125–130 cm to well over 150 cm.
Its restrained dimensions give this antique mantel a remarkable slenderness and elegance, rather like the famously narrow waistline of a young Sophia Loren… How many heads that silhouette must have turned — and how many jealousies it must have inspired.
Now then, before poetry entirely overtakes us, a few technical details are also worth mentioning.
Its white Carrara marble, though not Statuario, possesses a beautifully light background and, above all, delicate grey “clouding” — a rather charming term used to describe the soft veining within the stone. These markings remain light, elegant and never intrusive, an extremely important aesthetic quality.
Louis XV style fireplace mantel in white Carrara Venatino marble, dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. The carving work was carried out in Lunigiana, at the foot of the unmistakably Italian Apuan Alps. The piece remains in excellent condition with its original patina beautifully preserved. Parisian provenance.
