European Fireplaces and Mantels

French fireback produced in honor of the marriage of G and M. The fireback is furthermore decorated with two pillars of Hercules. The pillars refer to the club of Hercules and stand ...

A superb pair of antique English ornate Neoclassical style brass fireplace andirons, circa 1900. These are heavy and well made with fine details and a beautiful brass patina. DIME...

Museum quality and impressive hard stone fireplace surround from the end of the Louis XIV period with warm and nice patina. Measures: 155 cm EW 61.02". 124 cm EW+ 48.81"...

Phenomenal original antique fireplace surround in Arabesco marble from the regency period from the city of Antwerp. One unique city palace mantle piece. Regency period, 18th century....

20th century French fireback with an allegory of love. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter at no extra cost...

20th Century Victorian Style Polished Cast Iron Combination Fireplace. This Magnificent Combination Fireplace, The Britannia Exemplifies Quality Cast Iron. Detailed Highlight Polis...

Decorative brass coal bucket with Zinc insert and Fleur De Lis handles Nice patina through out.

An antique Georgian style pine fire surround. At over 120 years old, this fireplace is evocative of classic Georgian styling, detailed with carved foliage designs to the frieze and e...

Presenting a marble mantel with an understated yet distinct design, featuring intricately carved acanthus leaf motifs and a solitary round floral motif at the center of its apron. De...

18th century French Louis XV fireback with a typical Louis XV decoration. The fireback is made of cast iron and has black / pewter patina. The fir...

A large antique Victorian mahogany fireplace reclaimed from a large country house in Yorkshire. Dating to circa 1890, the substantial jamb...

18th-19th century French neoclassical period fireback. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a black / pewter patina. The condition is good, no cracks.  

A simple late 19th century Scottish polished fire grate in the manner of Robert Adam. A square back plate with scalloped sides, below, a polished fire apron mounted with splayed finials, a four barred curved fire front...

A period 20th century cast iron fire grate in the ornate 18th century English Georgian Rococo style of Thomas Chippendale. The tall "C" scrolled densely hatched cast iron back compli...

French neoclassical style fireback with a woman and a cupid. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter. The cond...

18th century French Louis XV period fireback. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter. It is in a good condition...

This typical English fireplace is characterized by the beautiful cast iron, with original tiles in it. A built-in fire of this level can be built into a slee...

19th Century Georgian Pair Of Cast Iron Fireplace Insert Panels. Splayed Slips With Recessed Panels Showing Typical Decorative Features Such As Swags, Urns With Floral Patterns Used ...

Antique Fireback / Backsplash, The Bath Of Diana. Nice square cast iron antique fireback displaying "The Bath Of Diana", Goddess of the night and the hunt. Great condition, can b...

Exceptional rare marble hard stone bolection style chimney piece from the Burgundy Region. A similar fireplace surround is part of the library of the Chateau de Gilly, near Beaune. ...

Phenomenal fireplace surround out of a Belgian palace. The carving is deep and rich. The proportions of the mantel are grand. Could work perfectly in a Rococo style bespoke room. M...

19th century French Napoleon III fireback with a cupid. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter. The condition is...

Original simple vintage fireplace surround from a Belgium home in white Carrara marble. It is a Louis XVI style from the 19th century. Measures: 135 cm Exterior Width 53,15 Inch 108...

This is an antique Victorian fire surround. An English, fire fender handcrafted in iron dating to the late 19th century, circa 1890. Tradit...

An antique Neoclassical style carved pine fire surround. Dating to the late 19th century, this fireplace has stood the test of time across the centuries. It is beautifully ornate, c...

20th century French Napoleon III fireback with a boy and his dog. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter. The...

Very exclusive mantel of Carrara marble from Italy! A beautifully decorated fireplace in the style of Louis XVI with various ornaments in the front part of the fireplace and on the l...

This original 18th century Royal French Saracolin marble fireplace surround is from the Louis XVI period. It has rounded corners and an exceptionally rich and brilliant color combina...

Beautiful 18th century French Louis XV fireback with the arms of France. This is the coat of arms of the House of Bourbon, an originally French royal house that became a major dynast...

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.

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

20th century German Neoclassical style fireback with an unknown coat of arms. It is in a good condition and does not have cracks.  

17th century French fireback .The fireback is from the Louis XIV period. It has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter. The condition is good, no cracks. ...

An English moulded bolection fireplace in Calacatta Verde marble. A scaled down version of a chimneypiece originally housed in the Officer's mess at Ch...

French antique Louis XVI fireplace mantel in white Carrara marble. Strong and well profiled stepped topshelf above a finely carved paneled frieze with beautiful laurel leaves flan...

21st Century Black Marble Mantlepiece. This English Made Unique Fireplace Mantelpiece Is Made From Deep Italian Nero Marquino Marble With a Polished Finish. The Design Is Based On A ...

This is a classic antique marble mantel. The serpentine apron is decorated with a scrolled fleur di lis motif. Detailed lines highlight the carved panels on the angled vertical suppo...

19th Century Victorian Marble Fireplace Mantlepiece. This Fireplace Surround Is English Made And Hand Carved From Italian Carrra Marble. Da...

The Victor. An Arts and Crafts Glasgow Style period cast iron fireplace, the mantle with scalloped details to the edges. The main body with a central upper stylised floral seed pod ...

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...

18th-19th century French neoclassical fireback with an allegory of love. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown patina. Upon request it can be made black / pewter.

A mid 19th century pair of zoomorphic Griffin Fire Dogs or Andirons. Made from cast Iron and with copper stomach inserts, these unusual and rare pieces are indicative of the Victoria...

An English late 17th Century semi-circular wrought-iron fire basket. The round fire bars form the enclosure and rudimentary hob-top with rivet-work fire grill. Wax finish. Circa 1690

Extraordinary 19th century French Bleu Turquin Louis XV style carved marble mantel. Decorative carvings and exceptional veining on this piece. A true work ...

This very nice and unusual fireplace screen is made of brass with smoked glass. This is a French work, circa 1970.

17th century French Louis XIV period fireback with Fleur de Lys. Symbol for purity and aristocracy throughout Europe. The fireback is made of cast iron and has a natural brown pat...

Artu Fire Pit designed by AK47 Design A chestnut fire pit that combines traditional and updated components, the Artu by AK 47 Design does double duty as an outdoor sculpture and is ideal for open spaces, gardens, parks, terraces, hotel outdoor areas, golf clubs and so on. Though the wood is treated to prevent corrosion, the natural shades offer a rustic and unadorned design. Sturdy and comfortable, the fire pit stays covered for safety when not in use, and won’t overheat. Store logs conveniently underneath the pit. The Artu’ is not only useful as a wood-burning fire pit, but with the addition of a grill kit, it can be used as a barbecue grill...

A deep, large scale English solid oak antique fireplace dating from the 1880s. Re-finished, this spectacular fireplace has a rich patina throughout that looks impressive in a variety...

Louis XVI period limestone fireplace surround from France. Straight lines with a nice surface and feeling. French 18th century for timeless living with a French touch. Exceptional ca...

Rustic French fireplace surround from the 18th century period in beige granite with original wear from Normandy. A manor fireplace that instantly brings the French feeling to the roo...

A large 1920s Art Deco burr walnut fire mantel with a beautiful character grain and striking stepped profile. This handsome antique fireplace is a chic addition to original 1920s pro...

Lovely soft toned yellow limestone with hints of red. This subtle French mantel dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. Some minor overall restorations and damages, le...

19th century French Louis XV style fireback with Marie Leszczynska, queen of France and wife of king Louis XV. The fireback is made of cast iron and ...

Sold by Maison Leon Van den Bogaert Antique Fireplaces And Architectural Elements a timeless white French limestone fireplace surround with original textured surface. This Louis XIV ...

A 19th century Regency style fireplace in veined White marble and Belgian black fossil marble. Architectural in design, with Belgian place panels within white marble mouldings...

Petite French stone fireplace surround with elegant jambs. The bleu-grey stone gives it an extra dimension in the room. This French rec...

An elegant fireplace insert with curved sides and applied beading. This antique fire insert will make a timeless addition to any chimneypiece. Additional dimensions Opening Height ...

Pair of Italian brass andirons, having the usual back in wrought-iron pillars with the beautiful circle shaped brass decor detail. As can be seen in the pictures we do have as well a...