THIS FIREPLACE IS ONE OF THOSE MANTELS THAT WHEN YOU FIRST SEE IT LEAVES YOU STUNNED, SPEECHLESS, SOMEHOW SO IMPRESSED THAT YOU THINK... BUT WHAT CAN MY WORDS POSSIBLY DO WHEN...
...WHEN ITS FORMS ALONE EXPRESS SOMETHING OF POWER, OF STRENGTH MIXED WITH A WHOLLY NATURAL BEAUTY, CHARACTERISTICS PECULIAR TO THE “FIREPLACE THAT NEVER HAS TO ASK”
...WHEN THE QUALITY OF HIS SCULPTURE IS THAT, INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE AND UNPARALLELED, OF THE LAND OF THE MOONS. IN THAT LAND, IN THE FOOTHILLS OF THE APUAN ALPS, THE SCHOOL OF SCULPTURE ALREADY HAD IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY SOME 2,200 YEARS OF HISTORY, SINCE IT HAD BEEN FOUNDED BY THE ROMANS AROUND 400 B.C.E., AFTER TAKING THE CITY OF VEIO, THE ETRUSCAN CAPITAL.
WHO, IN YOUR OPINION, IN THE ENTIRE GLOBE COULD BOAST SUCH AN EXPERTISE IN SCULPTURE!
FROM THIS ART-SOAKED HISTORY WAS BORN OUR FIREPLACE.
...WHEN ITS OLIVE BRANCH IS ONE OF THOSE RICH IN BERRIES AND ARTISTRY, STRETCHED ALMOST THE FULL WIDTH OF THE FRONTAL (USUALLY THE BRANCHES COVER A THIRD OF THE FRONTAL, HERE WE ARE AT LEAST DOUBLE THAT, AND WITHOUT SKIMPING ON THE QUALITY OF THE MASTER SCULPTOR HIRED...
... WHEN THE LEGS ARE EMBELLISHED WITH PERLAGE, PERLAGE THAT GOES, GRADUALLY AND FINELY, TAPERING AS IT DESCENDS.
...WHEN EVEN IN THE CHOICE OF THE CAST IRON INSERT (WHOSE CASTING QUALITY IS AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, UNSURPASSED, EVEN THE LAYMAN WILL UNDERSTAND) THERE IS THE ULTIMATE IN SELECTION... A FINE TAPISSERIE COUNTERSCORE, DELIBERATELY NOT GAUDY BUT OF UNDERSTATED ELEGANCE.
ALREADY SO MUCH DECORATIVE LOAD THERE IS IN THE MARBLE EMBRACING IT, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO ADD MORE SCENES, MORE DECORATIONS.
A FEW MORE “WHEN'S” I COULD PERHAPS ADD STILL, BUT I THINK WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU IS SUFFICIENT....
I WILL ONLY ADD THAT THE WHOLE THING (FIREPLACE AND BACKDROP) IS IN PERFECT CONDITION, NOTHING HAS BEEN RESTORED, EVERYTHING HAS BEEN MANUALLY CLEANED AND WAXED, NOTHING ELSE NEEDED TO BE DONE.
PARIS WAS HIS HOME, THE NAPOLEON III PERIOD HIS DATE OF BIRTH.
THOUGHTS TO THINK ABOUT
The world is heading for a globalization that, sovereignists or not, is impossible to stop, globalization that, perhaps, along with so many current negative problems will also bring greater general wealth, since the most reductive calculations tell us that in the next twenty years at least two billion people who are in poverty today will come to similar standards of living to those in Europe and thus become our good customers.
Parallel to the saturated belly also goes culture, the awareness of the beautiful and the Pleasure of being able to possess it.
And what is “the beautiful!” Well, among the many things that can be defined as beautiful, there are antique furniture, antique carpets, antique mansions (which are those built until 1940, then, the dark..) and there are also antique fireplaces, the expression of a world made of art and sweat, a world that is liquefying at a speed far greater than that of the glaciers of the North Pole.
It is very likely then that, in twenty years or so, those few remaining antique fireplace mantels on the market will be in demand by a multitude of individuals, and their economic value will skyrocket.
MORAL OF THE STORY: OWNING THIS FIREPLACE WILL NOT JUST BE AN AESTHETIC AND/OR CULTURAL PLEASURE, BUT A REAL INVESTMENT, CERTAINLY SAFER THAN NVIDIA OR TESLA STOCKS.
