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Building Block Tassel

Pair of Italian Silver over Bronze Urn Finial Wrought Iron Andirons, Circa 1830
Located in Hollywood, SC
with ribbon and floral swags, gadrooned plinths, matching finial blocked log stops, and resting on
Category

Antique 1830s Italian Neoclassical Andirons

Materials

Bronze, Wrought Iron, Silver

Recent Sales

A 19th Century French Carrara Marble Chimneypiece
Located in London, GB
loaded quivers holding feathered arrows from which fall buckled belts which terminate in tassels. The
Category

Antique 19th Century French Fireplaces and Mantels

Materials

Carrara Marble

18th Century Antique English Neoclassical Marble Fireplace Mantel
Located in London, GB
(Greek Eros, God of love) fast asleep (in an Arcadian pastoral scene), on a tasseled pillow, his bow and
Category

Antique 18th Century and Earlier British Georgian Fireplaces and Mantels

Materials

Marble, Statuary Marble

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Finding the Right fireplaces-mantels for You

While we likely wouldn’t mourn the invention of home heating and air-conditioning, these innovations did tragically reduce the widespread need for fireplaces and mantels in our living rooms.

Once an essential fixture in all homes, the fireplace, which, along with the chimney, is as old as the Middle Ages, was actually rendered redundant with the advent of the cast-iron heating stove during the 18th century. Victorian-era heating stoves were popular in the common areas of a living space for their capacity to heat as well as for their lack of smoke compared to fireplaces. However, improvements in craftsmanship as well as the Industrial Revolution meant that fireplaces were evolving in form and functionality.

Even as HVAC systems would eventually see to it that fireplaces weren’t a necessity, no mechanically engineered thermal heating and ventilation technology can replicate the feeling of warmth and camaraderie that a flickering fire guarantees. We just love a good fireplace.

“With antique fireplaces, you get heart, soul, character and architecture,” says Tony Ingrao, a Manhattan-based interior designer who purchased an important 16th-century French limestone fireplace for a client’s Greenwich Village townhouse.

Vintage fireplaces and mantels have earned their coveted position as desirable focal points in any room over the course of a staggering evolution in design that has yielded everything from intricately carved works of limestone to sleek works of wood paneling and rolled steel.

As log after log turns into ash, these iconic designs prove their timelessness and value, monetarily and as prized decorative monuments. Whether you seek to simply warm a space or completely transform it, an eye-catching new mantel for your blazing hearth — be it an elegant neoclassical design, a marvelous work of marble in the Louis XV style or an unconventional contemporary variation — is the perfect solution.

Find a collection of antique and vintage fireplaces and mantels on 1stDibs today.