PREREQUISITE TO UNDERSTANDING HIS FASCINATING STYLISM:
YOU WILL SEE THIS CARD PUBLISHED IN AS MANY AS FOUR DIFFERENT SECTIONS:
(A) IN THE “REGENCY ” SECTION BECAUSE HIS STYLISM IS A PERFECT FUSION OF LOUIS XIV AND LOUIS XIV STYLES;
B) YOU WILL THEN SEE IT AGAIN IN THE LOUIS XIV SECTION AND IN THE LOUIS XV SECTIONBECAUSE OF EACH OF THESE STYLES OUR FIREPLACE POSSESSES UNMISTAKABLE ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS (SAID SIMPLISTICALLY, THE FRONT IS LOUIS XV WHILE THE LEGS ARE LOUIS XIV) AND THEREFORE THE SAME FIREPLACE CAN INTEREST DIFFERENT CUSTOMERS, LOVERS OF ONE STYLE AND LOVERS OF THE OTHER;
C) YOU WILL ALSO FINALLY SEE IT AGAIN IN THE “VARIOUS STYLES" SECTION BECAUSE THE REGENCY STYLE (ALSO CALLED "TRANSITION”), ALTHOUGH IT IS THE OFFSPRING OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE TWO STYLES PRECEDING IT, HAS ITS OWN PERSONALITY AND ITS OWN FOLLOWING OF ADMIRERS (AMONG WHOM I INCLUDE MYSELF, BEWITCHED BY ONE OF ITS PARTICULAR GIFTS, ITS “LIGHTNESS” OF LINES).
THIS VERYRARE FIREPLACE (ITIS MORE THAN VERY RARE IN THAT IT IS WHAT IS CALLED A “UNIQUE PIECE”, THAT IS, A MANTEL NOT MASS-PRODUCED, BUT BASED ON A SPECIFIC DESIGN MADE ON PRIVATE COMMISSION) HAS A HISTORY AS FASCINATING AS ITS ELEGANT AND NOT AT ALL USUAL LINES.
All these things having been said, I want to tell you its story.
No, not that I can give you the family tree of all the families who have owned and enjoyed it, however, some historical information (probably of interest to those considering this purchase) seems fair to write it in this commentary:
First of all, its stone, the mythical “Pierre Dorée,” of Burgundian origin, a limestone born from sedimentation over millions of years on the seabed, where siliceous mud accumulated in good part but also shells, marine fossils etc.). This Pierre Dorée has colors, indeed, “golden,” with a very variable intensity from “almost white” to “almost ochre,” a variation, this one, due to the percentage of iron oxide present in one or another quarrying zone.
Have you ever been to Burgundy!?
It's the region of Beaujolais, the quintessential new wine (it kills me because it tastes like grapes, smells like the must I used to breathe when I was a peasant brat..), a wine whose roots lie in a land . RED.
RED because it is rich in iron, in a more or less high but always consistent concentration, the same iron that in the hundred million before the grafting of the vine, “fertilized” the sedimentation of “our” stone.
AT THIS POINT IT IS NECESSARY TO SAY HOW OUR SPECIFIC STONE, THE ONE FROM WHICH THE FIREPLACE WE ARE DISCUSSING IS MADE, IS PARTICULARLY CLEAR NOT THAT THERE IS NO IRON IN IT, THERE IS, BUT IN LOW AMOUNTS, SO MUCH SO THAT WE ARE VERY CLOSE TO THE “ALMOST WHITE” WE WERE TALKING ABOUT ABOVE, MOREOVER MUCH RARER THAN THE “ALMOST YELLOW.”
All right, of the stone we now know its origin, but who worked it, this stone, in order to bring forth this very elegant fireplace!
Not the French, they were more into planning, “design,” as we would call it now, while mallet and chisel work was not their thing, and so.
And so, these stone fireplaces had them carved by the Basques, Spaniards who in their land had many quarries of stone materials, stones and marbles, the best known of which to this day is Nero Marquinia. And where there is an abundance of stone materials, the locals learn the trade of stonemason or sculptor, don't they! Except that in Basque land, at least at that time, poverty raged, and so, to earn a little extra money, Basque stonemasons would climb over the Pyrenees and come to the CÔTE D'AZUR and Burgundy to do what we would call “THE SEASON,” which lasted from early spring to the end of autumn.
IN SHORT, THE FRENCH DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SWEATING IN THE DUST AND SO, JUST AS THEY DID FOR MARBLE WORKING, ENTRUSTED ALMOST 100% TO ITALIAN SCULPTORS FROM THE LUNIGIANA (BASICALLY THEIR “CHINESE”) FOR STONE WORKING THEY TURNED, PRECISELY, TO BASQUE SEASONAL MIGRANTS.
At this point we also know who materially carved, out of some “hatchling” stone solids in a seabed from perhaps 100 million years ago, this very fine fireplace.
BUT WHO, THIS WORK OF ART, DESIGNED IT!
We do not know its name, of course, but one thing we know for sure: The pencil that, fluttering with Garbo and Wisdom, produced this most elegant design has only one address, PARIS.
ANOTHER THING YOU MUST KNOW: So-called “FRENCH” stylism is not “French” at all, but PARISian.
Beyond the borders of the tiny region of which Paris is the capital, the miraculous Ile de France, there is no longer a trace of the unattainable artistic quality that is breathed and produced in this land.
It is an unbelievable phenomenon, this, but easily verifiable, you need only, after seeing Paris (and the interior of the houses of Paris), go, I don't know, to the south (Marseilles, for example) or to the west (Bordeaux) or to the north (in what are now the lands of Flanders), it will be evident to your eyes and your heart that Beauty with a capital letter is in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
I will say more (then I will stop because I may be exaggerating with this exaltation of Parisian stylism, but what can you do, in the field of ancient fireplaces, the air one breathes in this city is unparalleled): There was a time (which I, albeit marginally, lived through at the beginning of my activity in this field) when fireplaces in Pierre Dorée were called “cheminées parisiennes.” In fact, almost all mantels carved in Burgundy and the CÔTE D'AZUR were commissioned for Parisian buyers and therefore their stylism could only be that, precisely, Parisian (i.e., the most refined and in any case the only one that could have satisfied these patrons).
PARISIAN FIND, EARLY 19TH CENTURY PERIOD, PERFECT PRESERVATION.
