Richard Billington has created a very informative website, westlandlondon.com, dedicated to antiques - mostly antique fireplaces and chimneypieces. For example here's what Richard says about the mantel on the left: RENAISSANCE , HIGH RENAISSANCE and NEO RENAISSANCE style fireplaces and design generally were and are mostly found in prestigious buildings of Grand Scale...both Palaces.. Palazzo ...Chateaux... Castles and more recently in Municipal and State administration institutions - even Railway stations. 9856 on the right is a very early 16th Century Antique Italian Period Renaissance chimneypiece from the North East Venetto ...Verona / Venice region of Italy and was possibly the work of Jacopo Sansovino , 1486 -1570...and carved from intensly rich Fossilised Lumachella Bigia ...translates to Snails....marble Similarly he describes fireplaces and chimneypieces from the Renaissance period (1260 - 1600), Baroque (1550 - 1750), Rococo (1740 - 1780), Neo Classical (1700 - 1820), Regency (1790 - 1820) and Victorian (1820 - 20th Century). Especially interesting is his list of Museums and Galleries

Sacrificial Inner Surrounds

Some of our Rumford fireplace customers import historic fireplace mantels and chimneypieces. That only makes sence since many of these mantels adorned Rumford fireplaces.

Often, however, our customers want a Rumford to fill the entire inside opening of the mantel when, in fact, there was usually a sacrificial inner surround framing a slightly smaller fireplace inside the decorative mantel. "Sacrificial" in the sense that these inner surrounds, often only 4" or 6" wide, protected the mare valuable decorative mantel. "Sacrificial" also in that they serverd their purpose, were not elaborately decorated, were usually damaged and were not imported with the rest of the mantel. A sacrificial inner suround is easy to make to match the mantel and adds a little decorative detail framing the fireplace opening. The real fireplace, being a little smaller, would be more efficient and the decorative mantel would not block the view of the fire - and radiant heat. The fireplace on the right shows such a sacrificial inner surround.

And these fireplaces could benefit from sacrificial inner surrounds.

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