Copper Fireplace Fence

From cupolas to cookware and fine art to filaments, copper metal has been used in so many ways since prehistoric times. Today, antique, new and vintage copper coffee tables, mirrors, lamps and other furniture and decor can bring a warm metallic flourish to interiors of any kind.

In years spanning 8,700 BC (the time of the first-known copper pendant) until roughly 3,700 BC, it may have been the only metal people knew how to manipulate.

Valuable deposits of copper were first extracted on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus around 4,000 BC — well before Europe’s actual Bronze Age (copper + tin = bronze). Tiny Cyprus is even credited with supplying all of Egypt and the Near East with copper for the production of sophisticated currency, weaponry, jewelry and decorative items.

In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, master painters such as Leonardo da Vinci, El Greco, Rembrandt and Jan Brueghel created fine works on copper. (Back then, copper-based pigments, too, were all the rage.) By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, decorative items like bas-relief plaques, trays and jewelry produced during the Art Deco, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau periods espoused copper. These became highly valuable and collectible pieces and remain so today.

Copper’s beauty, malleability, conductivity and versatility make it perhaps the most coveted nonprecious metal in existence. In interiors, polished copper begets an understated luxuriousness, and its reflectivity casts bright, golden and earthy warmth seldom realized in brass or bronze. (Just ask Tom Dixon.)

Outdoors, its most celebrated attribute — the verdigris patina it slowly develops from exposure to oxygen and other elements — isn’t the only hue it takes. Architects often refer to shades of copper as russet, ebony, plum and even chocolate brown. And Frank Lloyd Wright, Renzo Piano and Michael Graves have each used copper in their building projects.

Find antique, new and vintage copper furniture and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

Personal time-telling devices may have migrated from our pockets to our wrists and finally onto our phones, but despite the convenience of a handheld digital timekeeper, nothing can beat well-made vintage, new and antique mantel clocks.

Invented by clockmakers in France and popularized in the 18th and 19th centuries, these practical yet ornate pieces were typically displayed on top of fireplaces or desks. While the most common mantel clocks were created in the traditional tambour style, which features a wide base that flares into an upright drum- or camelback-shaped case, modern clockmakers and furniture designers have experimented with their own ideas for these decorative objects over the years, introducing different forms and working with unconventional materials. A collection of whimsical, monochromatic handmade mantel clocks crafted by Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk, called Floating Frames, for example, features minimalist frames of anodized wire and ceramic clockfaces.

When shopping for an antique, vintage or new mantel clock, don’t be afraid to branch out. Wood mantel clocks of any era will bring a classic, elegant allure to the shelving in your living room or the bookcase in your bedroom, while Empire-style mantel clocks will comparatively boast eye-catching gilt bronze and pronounced sculptural attributes. Some Art Deco mantel clocks will feature an integration of marble or glass and will likely be marked by the decorative embellishments associated with that particular furniture style.

There’s just something about cool clocks, right? Spend your time with an extraordinary collection of mantel clocks on 1stDibs today.