Fireplaces and Mantels

A very deep moulded bolection style fireplace, a reproduction of an early 19th century, Ashburton marble surround from our antique catalogue. In bla...

Large and handsome hand carved mantel. New and ready to ship or to be Delivered. Comes apart for moving. The carving is extremely good. The center Post can be removed if customer d...

A handsome antique Edwardian oak fireplace dating from the early 20th century. This reclaimed fireplace has a relatively understated design, crafted in oak with a panelled frieze an...

A large Georgian style antique 19th century fireplace mantel of simple yet elegant design in Antico Verde and Pencil Vein Carrara marble. The jambs in Carrara with Pilaster Antico ve...

Antique Dutch Louis XIV Fireplace Mantel. Monumental 18th Century Dutch fireplace in beautiful deep colored Belgian bluestone. The perfect shimmer and color really make this stand o...

A 19th Century Georgian manner polished steel fireplace insert. A generous polished outer plate with an applied raised lambs tongue moulding, encompassing a central tablet with a pro...

American wrought iron two panel freestanding fire screen with decorative scroll work, wire mesh, hinged doors, and terminating on scrolled legs. Mid...

Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this fully restored extra large very important looking Art Deco chrome club fender with hand dyed brown leather Chesterfield seat ...

French 19th century period stone fireplace mantel in great condition. This small fireplace mantel is the perfect eye-cather in a chic timeless d...

18th-19th century French neoclassical period fireback. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter at no extra cos...

Serpentine shape with beehive brass finials and brass top rail.

A Louis XIV style veined white cultured cast-marble fireplace mantel. The ornately detailed mantel centered with a seashell flaked by flowers and leaves, circa late 20th century. Measures: Shelf width 67 3/8 inches (171.2 cm) Shelf depth 12 1/2 inches (31.8 cm) Body width 66 inches (167.6 cm) Overall height 44 inches (111.8 cm) Opening width 50 1/2 inches (128.3 cm) Opening height 34 inches (86.4 cm) Projection 5 inches (12.7 cm) Cultured marble...

Different bicolor Louis XIV period mantel in Burgundy hard stone. Interesting is the different color, shades in the mantel. The shelf shows the detail of the work of the maker. It or...

White Statuary and Bleu Turquin marble fine museum piece. This phenomenal fireplace surround is one of a kind. Could be a perfect fit for a neo colonial interior design. It is a late...

A very nice proportioned beige colored Louis XVI fireplace mantel from France. Rectangular profiled shelf sit above a panelled frieze centred by a red marble elliptical inlay with o...

A turn of the 20th century circa 1900 English Brass, steel and cast iron fire grate/basket. The tapering front torchiere supports with brass flame finials, flanking Archers bow shape...

19th Century Black Slate Fireplace Mantlepiece. A Large Beautiful Antique Victorian English Made Fireplace Surround Made From Black Welsh Slate. This Stunning Fireplace Surround Has ...

A simple yet elegant white marble fireplace in the Regency style. The fluted jambs surmounted by carved rosette paterae above. The frieze with flutes throughout. Moulded shelf above....

Rare 18th century antique French Louis XVI fireplace mantel. Hand-carved in desirable St Anne's marble. Delicately carved recessed Jambs and Frieze; with elegantly carved centre shel...

This custom fire screen features a frameless pane of ½" thick tempered glass mounted on a pair of polished nickel feet. This design is customizable,...

Impressive Carved Wood Mantel And Trumeau With Yellow Sienna Marble Accents

This small vintage fireplace surround in limestone has remains of the original patina. It is perfect for a country side house, a rustic room. ...

This is a nice French honey color limestone antique fireplace surround. The waxed surface of the antique chimney piece has a silky feeling when t...

18th century fireback with Arms of France, pillars and the date of production 1779. The Fleurs de Lys and the crown were partially truncated during the French Revolution. The style o...

A simple and versatile Victorian period style cast. iron fire grate with a generous burning area. Repeating. acanthus leaves form a border supported. by cabriole legs, complete with its original ash pan...

This is a fine original antique fireplace surround from the first half of the 18th century. Louis XIV period. The Saracolin marble and the fine carved center is of exceptional qualit...

A handsome antique Louis XVI style oak fire mantel. At over 130 years old, this antique fireplace has stood the test of time. It displays styling evocative of the Victorian period wi...

A finely carved Italian Carrara white marble fireplace with shaped frieze, centered with griffons and elegant acanthus leaves decoration. On the sides two ovals representing Julius C...

19th Century French Polished Brass Fire Screen Adorned with a Fire Cheriot in the Center. Professionally cleaned and polished

This is a extra fine sculpted chimney piece of the French regency period, 1st half of the 18th century. The Royal Saracolin marble was used in many luxury decors of that time period....

An original Art Deco style walnut fire surround; one of two almost identical fireplaces we are selling salvaged from a property in South London. Featuring unique character woodgrain ...

A large chimneypiece executed in yellow Siena marble. The central cartouche carving Hercules wearing the Nemean lionskin, flanked on either side by carved foliate scrollwork, which ...

This is an phenomenal Rococo fireplace surround in white statuary marble. Very exceptional see the images. A real state of the art mantel in perfect condition. Measures: 161 cm EW ...

This exceptionnal baroque fireplace is from Italy, dated as the end of the 18th century. It is an outstanding marble piece, and gathers two types of beautiful and distinct marbles; white statuary Carrara marble and Brocatelle marble, characterized by the rich and foliage patterns all over its swirling veining surface. The Carrara marble quarries found near the Mediterranean sea between Pisa and Parma, have been famous since roman times and add a distinct shine and refinement to objects carved out from this marble. A delicate marble bust is standing in the center of the fireplace and is balancing the richly detailed white and yellow decor...

This antique fireplace mantel (fireplace) is one of a kind. It has been executed in Brocatelle d'Espagne marble with Black Belgian Mazy marble details. The angel head and the caprico...

Italian rustic fireplace surround with some remaining patina. The condition and color is a perfect match for a country interior design. Me...

The Celeste Fireplace Screen's hand-forged star points and colorful, textural ceramic spheres evoke the beauty of a clear night sky. The solid iron frame, crossbar motif, and cheerfu...

This is a very nice grey-green, marble stone original antique fireplace mantel. The design of it fits it in timeless and contemporary interiors as well Art Deco ones. The polished st...

A small and nice French fireplace surround made out of Corton hard limestone, from Vougeot, A small village in Burgundy, France. Perfect for a cosy timeless chique interior. Measure...

Beautiful late 19th century modern brass Fireplace Fender with handsome original brass claw feet. Wonderful aged patina. Placed on the fireplace...

The fine carving gives this antique fireplace surround a very romantic antique twist. The mantel has side panels on the jambs. It was installed in a big house in Paris. Side vents ar...

French Art Deco wrought iron fireplace screen Signed Szabo. Superb and rare antique French Art Deco hand forged wrought iron and glass fireplace screen/fire screen signed SZABO, 1925...

This sophisticated pair of modernist andirons were realized by the esteemed designer Alessandro Albrizzi, in Italy, circa 1970. They feature inverted T-forms consisting of a horizont...

20th century French fireback with an allegory on Faith. Faith (from the triptych faith, hope and love, the three theological virtues). The fireback is made of cast iron and has a nat...

A slightly aged Regency style fireplace in Carrara marble. A good quality reproduction piece, available in custom sizes and other marbles. Ope...

A superb pair of antique English Victorian solid brass fireside or mantel whippet dogs, circa 1880. These fine dog sculptures are a nice large size, solid and heavy, and well made wi...

Monumental black marble Louis XVI fireplace mantel Very impressive 19th century Louis XVI fireplace mantel in Belgian black marble....

19th century French Napoleon III fireback with a hunting scene. The fireback is made of cast iron. The patina is natural brown. Upon request it can be made black / pewter. The fireba...

Beautiful soft toned limestone Louis XV fireplace mantel from mid- France. The three differently shaped shells are perfectly and true like, executed by a French stone cutter in the 1...

Fabulous 18th century Belgian antique fireplace surround. A small Black Belgian marble and Belgian Ardenne marble jewel in great condition. One of a kind original fireplace surround ...

A large Rococo Louis XV period fireplace in rich and highly variegated Rouge Griotte de Belgique marble. The cantered jambs having scrolled and stiff acanthus leaf carvings with shap...

Edward William Godwin, attributed. An Anglo Japanese Mahogany fire screen with the original Japanese silk depicting a bridge over a river in a countr...

Large Antique Victorian Embossed Brass Fireplace Log Box Coal Box with Country Scenes. Item features finely embossed details, plenty of storage, soli...

A Highly Important Empire Period Rosso Antico Chimneypiece Inset with Specimen Marble Portrait Reliefs of Roman Emperors The carved and veneered surround comprising a moulded shelf supported by a bold dentil cornice, above an inverted breakfront frieze carved with a central triglyph panel, flanked by a pair of rosettes carved in shallow relief, the frieze mounted with six carved hardstone profile portrait medallions of Roman Emperors, the stop-fluted jambs raised on moulded footblocks; in excellent condition with small restorations commensurate with age and use; the pale inclusions in the stone naturally formed. This spectacular neoclassical marble chimneypiece is carved from Rosso antico, the frieze inset with six portrait reliefs of Roman Emperors, each carved in marmo giallo on a bardiglio background, five variously incised: VESPASIANUS, TIBERIVS, OTHO, JULIUS CAESAR, TITUS. Rosso antico (marmor taenarium) is first recorded as being quarried in 1700 BC at Akra Tainaron (Cape Matapan), Greece.¹ The majority of this stone, however, was extracted throughout the Roman period, when it was one of the most coveted materials for carving due to its rich red colouring and association with highly prized Egyptian ‘Imperial’ Porphyry.² Rosso antico was chosen in antiquity for portrait busts, notably depicting Bacchic subjects such as Dionysus and satyrs due to its rich red wine colour which symbolised conviviality whilst conveying the education and cultivated taste of the owner.³ In the Renaissance, Rosso antico was also used for architectural detail on important buildings, such as the steps leading up to the choir in the medieval church of S. Prassede, and the large columns at the entrance to the Camera dell'Aurora.⁴ In 121 AD, G. Suetonius Tranquillus, secretary to Emperor Hadrian, wrote a biographical history of the first twelve emperors of Rome entitled De vita Caesarum (The Twelve Caesars). A Renaissance edition of Tranquillus’ work was published in 1470, followed by further reprints and translations into all the main European languages. Many of these were illustrated with prints of emperors taken from coins and statues, or imagined by the artist based on Tranquillus’ accounts. These interpretations were copied, in turn, by Renaissance designers for medals, Limoges enamels, and busts, as well as paintings such as the Eleven Caesars, a series of eleven half-length portraits of Roman emperors made by Titian in 1536–40 for Federico II, Duke of Mantua.⁵ These paintings were later given to King Charles I, before being passed in the Commonwealth to the Kings of Spain. Unfortunately, the series was destroyed in the catastrophic fire of 1734 at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, and is now only known through copies and engravings.⁶ From the middle of the 17th century until the end of the 18th century, there was an insatiable demand for marble carvings, often sold as Roman or assembled from ancient fragments, thus perpetuating the reverence for antiquity that was the quintessence of the Grand Tour. Rosso antico was in extremely short supply, even after the ancient quarries at Skutari were rediscovered in 1830, and remained one of the most highly valued of all stones. Described in 1776 as ‘dark red; scarce and dear’, it was mostly used for small objects such as Grand Tour desk ornaments, inevitably using material re-cut from classical fragments, due to its rarity, as was the case with porphyry.⁷ The portrait roundels on this chimneypiece are typical of those produced in Rome and Florence in hardstones, semi-precious stones, gold, silver, bronze, and mother-of-pearl, which, being easily transportable, would be taken home from the Grand Tour to be mounted within wooden, gilded or brass frames, as fashion dictated.⁸ A group of gold portraits of Caesars, dating from around 1660, are in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. Images of Roman emperors were not limited to Italy, England and France, however, as examples executed in Deshima for the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) show. Medallions depicting Roman emperors, invariably made of black and gold Japanese hiramakie or takamakie lacquer on copper, were produced for the Dutch market at the end of the 18th century. Examples can be found in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.⁹ There are two possible sources for the Imperial profiles on the chimneypiece: the engravings of The Twelve Caesars by Marcantonio Raimondi, or the Imperatorum Imagines by Hubert Golz.¹⁰ The portrait medallions also bear remarkable resemblance to a set of eighteen carved portrait reliefs of Roman Emperors, also of marmo giallo, almost certainly bought by David Ker (1742–1811) of Portavo, Co. Down, on his Grand Tour between 1792–4 in either Florence or Rome. Ker’s diary entry for 17th October 1793 is interesting as it reveals that he was offering his brother a choice of chimneypiece designs, which further supports a Roman origin for the offered example.¹¹ Indeed, fire surrounds incorporating antique fragments had been promoted from the late 1760s by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–78), encouraged by Rome-trained architects including Robert Adam (d.1792). One such example, inset with mythological tablets carved from Rosso antico, was acquired by the 9th Earl of Exeter from Piranesi himself for Burghley House.¹² Another can be found at Islington House, Dorset.¹³ A third, inset with giallo antico and Rosso antico, follows Piranesi’s engraved design dated 1769 for a fire surround mounted with three marble portrait reliefs.¹⁴ It should be re-emphasised that Rosso antico was so precious that it was only ever used for small tablets or details rather than an entire chimneypiece, as with the offered example; likewise, while portrait reliefs are occasionally seen on the jambs of Italian surrounds, it is exceptionally rare to see the frieze mounted with a group, especially of this scale: the combination indicates an architectural commission by an extremely wealthy patron. The sophisticated lines of this chimneypiece epitomise the French Empire influence on the Italian states at the turn of the 18th century. This idiosyncratic ‘Roman’ taste is encapsulated by that of Napoleon, who identified with Rome’s Imperial past. Napoleon’s desire to establish a visual link between himself and Roman emperors is demonstrated by the portraits of his court painter, Jacques-Louis David, inspired by portraits of Emperor Augustus. This Imperial taste extended to architecture, furniture and porcelain, the latter two of which are combined in a group of magnificent ormolu-mounted guéridons commissioned in Sèvres between 1803–11, made to immortalise Napoleon’s reign.¹⁵ The second guéridon in the series, the Table des Grands Capitaines (Table of the Great Commanders of Antiquity), commissioned in 1806, is made almost entirely of hard-paste Sèvres porcelain. The top, painted in imitation of sardonyx, is centred by a portrait cameo of Alexander the Great, surrounded by twelve smaller heads of commanders and philosophers from antiquity: Pericles, Scipio Africanus, Pompey, Augustus, Septimus Severus, Constantine, Trajan, Caesar, Mithridates, Hannibal, Themistocles and Miltiades.¹⁶ Louis XVIII presented the table to the Prince Regent (later King George IV) in 1817 as a token of appreciation for Napoleon’s defeat two years earlier, and George IV treasured it so highly that it became part of the ceremonial backdrop for all his state portraits. The table remains in the Royal Collection.¹⁷ This chimneypiece remained, until recently, in the possession of a noble Dutch family, who acquired it from the owners of a bombed Knightsbridge house in the 1940s; unfortunately, its provenance prior to this has been lost. The use of Rosso antico on this scale, inset with these splendid Imperial profile medallions, appears unparalleled. 1. J. B. Grossman, 'Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture in Stone' (Los Angeles, 2003). Grossman states that this material was ‘...quarried in three places during antiquity: on Cape Tainaron present day Matapan on the Peloponnese of Greece; on Crete; and at the site of Iasos in Asia Minor. 2. L. Lazzarini, ‘Rosso antico and other red marbles used in antiquity: a characterization study’, Marble, Art Historical and Scientific Perspectives on Ancient Sculpture’ (1990), 237–252. C. Gorgoni, L. Lazzarini, P. Pallante, ‘New archaeometric data on Rosso antico and other red marbles used in antiquity, ASMOSIA VI, Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone’ (2002), pp. 199–206. J. Deér, trans. G.A. Gilhoff, The Dynastic Porphyry Tombs of the Norman Period in Sicily (Cambridge, 1959), p. 144. R. Gnoli, Marmora Romana (Rome, 1988), pp. 187–191. 3. A notable example is a satyr from the Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. Another is the head of a satyr in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, accession no. 2006.110. See T. Opper, Hadrian. Empire and Conflict (London, 2008), p. 165, fig. 149. 4. De Luca, Marmi antichi (Rome, 1998), p. 126. Faustino Corsi, Catalogo ragionato d’una collezione di pietre di decorazione (Rome, 1833), p. 93. 5. For related Limoges medallions, see set of ten circular Limoges enamel medallions depicting Roman emperors, en grisaille with gilding, from the workshop of Jacques I Laudin, sold Christie’s London, Fine Renaissance Bronzes and Works of Art, 19 December, 1977, lot 95. 6. See set of drawings sold Sotheby’s London, Of Royal and Noble Descent, 24 February, 2015, lot 184. 7. J. J. Ferber, Raspe’s Travels through Italy in the Years 1771–1772 (London, 1776), p. 218. 8. See Sotheby’s London, Pelham, the Public and the Private, 8 March 2016, lot 75: ‘A set of twelve mother-of-pearl cameos of Roman Emperors, Southern Italian, early 19th century’ 9. Oliver Impey, Christiaan J.A. Jörg, Cynthia Viallé, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580–1850 (Amsterdam, 2005) pp. 48–57, no. 56 & 57. 10. For a further reference, see the candlesticks by Jacques I Laudin in the Waters Art Gallery, illustrated in P. Verdier, Catalogue of the Painted Enamels of the Renaissance (Baltimore, 1967), p. 389, nos. 207 & 208. 11. John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy 1701–1800 (London, 1997), pp. 572–3. 12. Oliver Impey, Four Centuries of Decorative Arts from Burghley House (Virginia, 1998), p. 53, fig. 23. 13. Country Life, 12 June, 1997, p. 162, figs. 9–11. 14. A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle due Sicilie, Vol. II (Milan, 1984), pp. 592–93, p. 260. 15. S. Grandjean, 'Napoleonic Tables...

This is an original antique fireplace surround in Corton hard stone. The corton hard stone comes from a small town in the Burgundy area, Cor...

A large period Louis XV fireplace executed in superior quality Breche Violette marble. The jambs with deep side returns retaining their original brass vents, the front panels canter...

19th century French neoclassical fireback with two pillars and a floral decoration. The pillars stand for freedom, one of the three values of the French revolution. The fireback is ...

Super Stylized 1930s American Art Deco Plaster Fireplace Surround... Looks like it came off of the set of "Metropolis", or the Chrystler Building.. Total New York City piece.. Heav...

Happy to offer this impressive 18th Century Rococo style fireplace in Belgian Blue stone. This tall mantel has a very nice and strong shaped topshelf with ditto profiling, it rest on...

An original large-scale Georgian period wrought and cast iron fire grate circa 1800 with a detachable decorative summer grate to the front. Historically, summer fireplace grates li...