I don't know if we do well to present this important (I am referring to its decorative load) fireplace with the name that the Parisians have vulgarly affixed to it, "ESCARGOTS", that is to say...LUMACHE, OR BETTER, A SNAIL ROW... You might think that such a...low, creeping and even drooling appellation could not relate to a noble, refined, finely carved and symbolically very, very high fireplace.
NOTHING COULD BE MORE WRONG, READ BELOW AND YOU WILL THANK OUR “ESCARGOTS” FOR THE MANY FORTUNES IT WILL BRING YOU.
The mantel I am now presenting here demonstrates the knowledge of our architect, which goes back as far as a few millennia before Christ, as far as ancient Anatolia, a land in which the Meander River flowed... It was in fact the winding loops of this river that gave rise to the idea of this decoration with chasing lines, almost a kind of infinite labyrinth, in a designer of a few millennia B.C.. The Greeks, Etruscans and Romans adopted these decorative elements in many of their constructions, both in the circular version (the “ours”..) and in the more geometric version (more properly called “Greek”..).
SUCH PERFECTLY REPEATED AND APPARENTLY UNINTERRUPTED LINES HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE MOST DIVERSE MEANINGS, SUCH AS FERTILITY, IMMORTALITY (IN THE SENSE OF THE CYCLE OF LIFE, DEATH AND REBIRTH) BUT I BELIEVE THAT THE PREDOMINANT MEANING AND PERHAPS THE “TRUE” ONE IS THE MOST DIFFICULT FOR MAN TO ACHIEVE AS WELL AS THE MOST DESIRED AND THAT IS THE “DEPICTION OF INFINITY..”
Have you changed your mind about our mantel now that you know the history of “meander decoration”?
IF YES, KNOW THAT THIS MANTEL MODEL (ALL THE MORE SO WHEN MADE BY A VERY FINE ITALIAN SCULPTOR LIKE OURS) WAS MADE IN VERY FEW SPECIMENS AND, PERHAPS, IN ALL PROBABILITY, NO SPECIMEN IN SUCH A SMALL SIZE (AND FOR THIS REASON MUCH MORE SUITABLE FOR OUR MODERN ENVIRONMENTS).
PERFECT PRESERVATION, NAPOLEON III PERIOD (1840-60), PARISIAN PROVENANCE, ITALIAN SCULPTURE AND LUNENSE (THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF THE GLOBE).
P.S:LAST NOTE IN DEFENSE OF OUR ESCARGOTS: What does the olive leaf reproduced on the entire surface of the cast iron insert of our Escargots symbolize? The olive branch is a symbol of regeneration because, after the destruction caused by the Flood, the earth flourished again. At the same time it also became a symbol of peace, because it attested to the end of chastisement and God's reconciliation with mankind.
