I MUST MAKE AN IMPORTANT PREMISE, A PREMISE THAT YOU WILL HAPPEN TO READ OTHER TIMES IN THE LOUIS XVI AND EMPIRE SECTIONS, A PREMISE THAT, HOWEVER, IS NECESSARY TO A BETTER POSSIBLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FIREPLACE PRESENTED:
THIS FIREPLACE IS PUBLISHED BOTH IN THE LOUIS XVI SECTION AND IN THE EMPIRE SECTION, THIS IS BECAUSE WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT THE EMPIRE STYLISM (HERE I AM REFERRING TO THE "FIRST EMPIRE," THAT OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE) STEMS FROM THE NEOCLASSICAL STYLISTIC MATRIX AND MORE PRECISELY LOUIS XVI, IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT IN THE NAPOLEON III PERIOD (EMPEROR FROM 1852-1870) THE BASIC STYLISM OF THE FIRST EMPIRE WILL LOSE CERTAIN TOO AUSTERE AND/OR SPARTAN ASPECTS AND WILL BE DECISIVELY "REFINED."
AND ALSO, EXCUSE ME, I WOULD NOT MAKE TOO MUCH DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AND NAPOLEON III, THE LATTER IN FACT DESCENDED FROM THE FORMER (HE WAS HIS NEPHEW AS HE WAS THE SON OF BONAPARTE'S BROTHER), HE HAD HIS OWN DEFECT OF WANTING TO BE AN EMPEROR, HE WAS A PROPONENT OF FRENCH GRANDEUR (IT WAS HE WHO BUILT, AT THE COST OF DEMOLISHING THE CENTER OF PARIS, THE CHAMPS ELYSEES) AND HE TOO, AFTER A MILITARY DEFEAT ENDED UP IN EXILE.
TALIS ZIO TALIS FILIUS!!!
ALL THIS PARROT TO BE ABLE TO SAY THAT, AFTER ALL, EVEN THEM SO-CALLED "SECOND EMPIRE" IS NOT AT ALL SECOND TO THE "FIRST EMPIRE."
NOW LET US GO TO THE ACTUAL COMMENTARY ON THE FIREPLACE IN THIS FILE:
Pardon me for repeating myself, but... I think it is essential to warn the kind visitors to my site this time as well, how, except in rare cases and always justified by some insurmountable reason, the published fireplaces are presented in the state of their finding, basically as they come to us from the construction site from which we disassembled them, except for a cursory general cleaning.
Well, this time (as indeed happens more and more often due to the “laziness” of the person in charge of such opra, for some time now more dedicated to decerebrate himself with one of those damned handyman cell phones than to devote himself to the work for which I pay him..), this time, as I told you, the “cursory cleaning” was very, indeed too ...cursory.
Know that after the sale and before delivery we will lovingly nectar the surfaces of this fireplace, here shamefully too dusty.
NAPOLEON III-PERIOD LUIGI XVI FIREPLACE IN ONE OF THE FINEST CARRARA WHITES YOU COULD WISH FOR, THE VERY NOBLE "VENATINO CARRARA."
NEEDLESS TO SAY, HOW ITS SCULPTURE IS RIGOROUSLY, DELICATELY AND ARTISTICALLY CARRARA (INSIDERS WILL IMMEDIATELY UNDERSTAND HOW SOME OF THE WORKMANSHIP WAS DONE WITH THE “VIOLIN,” FINE SCULPTING TOOL INVENTED AND USED IN THAT AREA) WHILE ITS DISCOVERY TOOK PLACE IN PARIS, HOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FIREPLACES IN THE WORLD..
ITS SIZE IS NOT EASILY FOUND IN FIREPLACES WITH SO MUCH DECORATIVE LOAD, GENERALLY MUCH LARGER.
PREMISE: YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT I COURTED THIS VERY IMPORTANT MANTEL FOR PERHAPS TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT....
BUT THE DEMAND OF THE PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL WAS SO HIGH THAT THIS DESIRED POSSESSION WAS IMPOSSIBLE....
I USED TO DREAM ABOUT IT (THE FIREPLACE, EH, NOT THE PRIVATE SELLER...) EVEN AT NIGHT....
I WOULD RETRACE IN MY MIND AND MEMORY ITS FINE DESIGN OF ITS CARRARA VENATIN, ITS VERY CLASSIC CARVING, ITS VERY FINE ACANTHUS LEAVES INVERTED AT THE CAPITALS...
BUT THEN I WOULD SAY TO MYSELF... “IT COSTS TOO MUCH, I CAN'T AFFORD IT..”
THEN, A FEW DAYS AGO, I RECEIVED A CALL (which I will translate into the italic idiom): "I AM MR. DUBOIS, ARE YOU, MAURIZIO, STILL INTERESTED IN MY FIREPLACE?!
BECAUSE RIGHT NOW I WOULD NEED TO SELL IT AND I WOULD BE WILLING TO ACCEPT YOUR OFFER...”.
FANTASTIC.. WILL MY JOB BE GOOD? TWO WORDS ON THE PHONE WERE ENOUGH TO MAKE ME HAPPY....
His nickname “Flammèches” comes from the subtle little flowers that are carved into each niche on the front and in a triple row on each leg. Flammeches means “Spark,” and these flowers represent above all its rising to the sky, in a yearning that has not only a, how shall we say, scenic or visual aspect, but contains in itself something more, a kind of poetry or if you prefer magic that only fire and its sparks can create in the soul of those who are in front of a hearth..
Also very well (in the sense of finely) carved are the acanthus leaves that form the capitals.
