English Fireplaces and Mantels

A substantial hardwood Palladian manner fireplace surround. A moulded top shelf, with dental check below- a wrap around top cornice of carved egg & dart moulding, below a Bolection s...

A simple and elegant antique Victorian oak fire mantel dating to around 1900. This reclaimed English oak fire surround features five carved panels of stylised flowers to the frieze a...

A refined and well proportioned mid Georgian style fireplace in white marble. The barrel frieze with panelled centre, and elegant moulded jambs and shelf. A copy of an 18th century d...

A complete Victorian manner cast iron fireplace insert. A generous outer plate with a raised and polished architrave, the three barred fire front with ash pan door, and fire grate.

A stunning English arts and crafts period solid oak fireplace, reclaimed from a house in Reading. Dating to the late 19th century, this antique fire surround has a beautiful warm o...

A late Victorian fire with stylized floral details to the top. Designed to have tiles down each side or used as is. Registered Design 274519; Dimensions of opening: 60 cm x 35 cm

20th Century, Hand Carved Statuary Marble English Fireplace. Hand carved statuary white marble fireplace surround. (Two available) Have you ever dreamt of owning a sculptural masterpiece as magnificent as this fireplace believed to be a replica of The Original Fireplace...

20th Century Polished Cast Iron Fireplace Mantelpiece This Magnificent Fireplace, The Peace & Plenty Exemplifies Pure Quality Cast Iron. And Is An Unusually Detailed Polished Cast ...

A larger than normal 19th Century Georgian manner polished steel fireplace insert. A generous polished outer plate with an applied raised lambs tongue moulding, encompassing a centra...

A tall and versatile Palladian manner solid Limestone fireplace surround. A generous moulded top shelf sits above a cushion spacer set with a central unadorned tablet (the whole removable) this in turn rests on a bolection moulded frieze lintel- that’s supported on a set of bolection jambs, with ample return sections giving this piece good projection. The whole displays on a set of splayed foot blocks. This handsome and versatile piece can be used in full with the shelf and tablet as shown in the main image, or can be used as a bolection surround...

A Superb and Rare George III, Neoclassical Siena and Statuary Marble and Painted Pine Fireplace with Porphyry and Antico Verde Faux Marbles Circa 1785–95. Inset with painted polychr...

Though this antique carved English oak fireplace dates from the late 19th century, it draws inspiration from eras across the ages. It is elaborately carved throughout and handcrafted...

A generous sized 19th Century Victorian Calacatta marble fireplace surround. The thick square edged shelf over an unadorned frieze, flanked ...

19th Century marble fireplace mantlepiece. English made original English Victorian rouge marble surround. Recently salvaged from a prominent l...

This is a Georgian revival marble fireplace. An English, fire surround with mantelpiece in the classical taste by Dominic Hurley, dat...

Predominantly uncarved, this stripped pine and gesso chimneypiece is of neoclassical form and austere complexion. A waterleaf moulding in gesso frames the aperture and the central ta...

A large and very good quality Regency style fire grate from the later part of the 19th century. The steel bowed bars with short cast iron fireback making a large burning area. The cu...

An historic chimneypiece or fireplace surround removed from an 18th century Georgian kitchen in Spitalfields, London. This imposing piece retains old white paint and is made from han...

19th century fine English Victorian statuary honed marble fireplace surround. Hand carved with fluted pilasters tapered jambs. With fine ornamental tablets On recessed paneling above...

A reclaimed original Art Deco style bolection fireplace. Veneered in burr walnut, this 1920s fireplace has a rich colour that is perfect for a period property in a chic Art Deco town...

A 19th Century Victorian Rococo manner cast iron & brass fire grate basket. The high shaped cartouche back plate with scalloped side cheeks, the four barred shaped fire front resting...

An unadorned Edwardian solid marble fireplace surround. A solid top beam with chamfer edges, the solid section jambs have further chamfers an...

Excellent quality finely painted and carved English 19th century Fender with a white crème color fabric. Elegant decor ideal to be included in a l...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this stunning ornately carved circa 1400 Henry VIII Armorial Crest Coat of Arms fireplace with Dieu Et Mon Droit...

A Georgian style carved pine fireplace, a moulded shelf sits above a frieze with reeded panels and a central tablet with a carved acanthus decoration, flanked by capitols featuring f...

A 19th Century manner polished steel fire grate. The high lollipop back plate, the three barred fire front with square standards topped with lidded finials. All resting on polished c...

Unique and elegant fireplace fender or surround beautifully crafted from metal and brass with tapering drip pans and encased brass floral themes in fine scrolling detail. A one of a ...

An elegant antique chimneypiece in Statuary White marble, and inlaid Convent Sienna. The jambs having delicately carved panels of ribbon tied bell drops, scrolls, foliage and oval Pa...

A charming mid 19th Century Victorian cast iron fireplace insert. A generous outer plate with high relief corner embellishments, a three barred shaped fire front...

A smart antique Georgian bullseye fire surround. Dating to circa 1780, this bullseye fireplace evokes classic Georgian styling with a wax finish and carved ‘bullseye’ end blocks with...

A fine quality English white marble fireplace in the late 18th century Robert Adam style. The frieze with carved centre block featuring urn and foliage with tied ribbons, the side pa...

Thomas Jeckyll in the style of. A rare pair of Aesthetic Movement cast iron fire inserts, each with twelve Minton tiles, printed in blue and white with comical designs by John Moyr-Smith from Aesop's Fables. The designs Moyr Smith drew on these tiles are known as:- The Dog and his shadow. The Fox & the Goat. The Hare and the Tortoise. The Frogs Who Wished for a King. The Wolf and the Lamb...

An Arts and Crafts oak fire surround by Shapland and Petter with five heart carvings to the top flanked by tapering columns with a central circular detail. The overmantel sits on th...

A very pleasing 19th Century Victorian cast iron fireplace insert. A generous outer plate in the form of a horseshoe shape with cast embellishments and an intricate central shell, a funnel chamber back section the three piece curved bars adorned with three cast finials...

A late 19th century cast Iron hooded fire grate, possibly Paktong in the Beaux-Arts style. A shaped hood sits above a pair of sweeping gables, at the base of each gable are a pair of...

A large and imposing carved pine Georgian style fire mantel, circa 1790 with later alterations. Designed in the architectural style, this antique fireplace features large scrolling ...

20th Century Georgian style Hand-carved Pine Mantelpiece Fireplace surround. A fine mid-Georgian design in the 'William Kent' style with a carved shell flanked by husk swags and fl...

A small 19th century Victorian cast iron fire grate, with a pair of scrolled based griffins hosting the 'Swans Nest' shaped fire grate. The significance of the mythological Griffin ...

A very elegant polished steel late Georgian register fireplace insert grate, a central etched tablet within a repeating beaded border and framed with an outer raised bar...

An enormous and grand antique walnut chimneypiece in the neoclassical style. The frieze elaborately carved with three pairs of sea serpents alternating with flambeau urns and scallop...

An English bolection fireplace in Italian Arabescato marble. The jambs and frieze with moulding throughout, surmounted by moulded shelf. Unusually deep design for the style adding th...

19th century Victorian cast ion Hob grate fireplace. Sand casted Hob-grate, Recently Salvaged From A London town house & restored to its tradition...

An unusual and charming 19th century Regency style Lumacella di San Vitale marble fireplace surround, a deep square splayed shelf sits above a frieze of carved reeding with a central...

A very well proportioned 19th Century manner lightly veined Statuary marble bullseye fireplace surround. A reeded top self sits directly ab...

19th Century Iron, Brass, and Steel Firedogs / Andirons These 19th-century andirons stand out for their combination of robust materials and elegant design, blending iron, brass, and...

A smart and well balanced 19th century Georgian style hob grate fireplace insert. A large framed outer plate with a central raised embellishment flanked by two tall barley twist spindles...

Regency style bronze tinder urn or coal scuttle , of circular form, with removable lid, revealing a black painted tin liner, resting in a bullet shaped cistern, supported by reuleaux...

A fine free-standing fire grate in the manner of Robert Adam with a semi-circular fan-fronted fire basket adorned with harebells and interlocking circles. The cut-steel polished fron...

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...

A reclaimed Arts and Crafts style copper insert with repoussé foliage decoration. It is an ornate fire insert to accompany a fire grate and surround, adding classical opulence to any...

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...

A pair of mid 20th century cast iron fireplace fire dogs in the form of dragons with crest and ball decoration.

C R Ashbee, attributed. An Arts & Crafts cast iron fireplace, central circular mirror with stylised copper frame overlooked by twin kissing doves with displ...

A good quality Aesthetic Movement brass fire fender with turned details and finials above, protective mesh to the lower part all stood on a solid brass plinth.

A very fine Urn grate in the Regency style. Finished in bronze patinated cast iron. Wrought Iron fire bars flanked by looped serpents. Decorated with swags, oval rosette and rams heads. The base with egg and dart socle, stod on a square plinth with hidden ash try...

A rare English brass fireplace fender in a twig or branch motif from the mid-19th century.

A very large and unusual Gothic Revival period stone chimneypiece. Wide cantered jambs, supporting gently arched spandrels with carved grotesques and beasts. The carved inner rope tw...

A large and imposing 18th century Georgian fireplace. The bulbous column jambs, stood on square foot blocks and socles, topped with ca...

A handsome Regency style English brass and steel firegrate. Having moustache shaped bars which pierce the brass front supports. Torchiere finials above rams head masks with gadrooned...

A large English Georgian fire grate. The four cluster column legs surmounted by large finials, flanking an intricately pierced brass fret work of b...