Mantels or Chimney-Pieces 
By ALICE L. SMITH 
T he importance given the chimney-piece or 
mantel in the architecture of the middle 
eighteenth century and earlier, is shown in 
the fact that many designers of that period devoted 
themselves largely to chimney-pieces. 
Thomas A. Strange in his interesting book on 
“Woodwork and Interior Decoration in England 
during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” 
gives excerpts fiom the “Chimney-piece Makers Dady 
Assistant, or A Treasury of New Designs lor Chim¬ 
ney-pieces,” by Thomas Milton, John Crunden and 
Placido Columbani. This contains a table giving 
proper dimensions of chimney-pieces for various 
sized rooms which it (piaintly states “may be applied 
to the most plain and simple designs and gradually 
ascend to the grand and magnificent, antique, 
modern, ornamental and Gothic tastes.” There 
follows a list of rooms in which these may be used. 
Many of these suggestions may be well turned to 
account by the designers of to-day. 
The characteristics of the architects and also of 
most designers of the late seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries were so pronounced as to he readily identi¬ 
fied. The work of Ehomas Johns in chimney-pieces, 
girandoles, over-doors, etc., was decidedly rococo in 
type. Mathias Lock was of the same school. 
Inigo Jones’study of the Italian renaissance is felt 
strongly in the 
chimney-pieces 
of his design¬ 
ing. The close 
association 
of the won¬ 
derful artist 
and wood car¬ 
ver. Grinling 
Gibbons, wit h 
Sir Christo¬ 
pher Wren is 
evidenced in 
m u c h of the 
representative 
work of the 
latter. Also in 
this country 
and in many of 
our fine o 1 d 
New England 
Colonial houses 
are beautiful 
chimney-pieces 
of carved wood, which are the work of the renowned 
artist himself, or some of his best pupils. 
The delicacy of treatment and simple dignity of 
line of the Adam period is brought out as completely 
in the chimney-piece and over-mantel decorations as 
in any part of their architectural detail of furnishing. 
Many of these old designs are partially reproduced 
and shown to-day in the line of mantels ready to set 
in place. Unfortunately this sometimes results in a 
mongrel mixture which is equally unsuited to rooms 
either modern or antique. 
Washington Irving has called the hearth “the 
rallying place of the affection” and certainly there 
is no single detail of a room which adds so greatly 
to its beauty and livableness, and which so draws 
together the dwellers in the home as a cheerful open 
fireplace. 
d'herefore, the importance of the mantel and tile 
to-day cannot be over-estimated. A room otherwise 
beautiful and correct in detail and color may have 
all of its good points swamped by an unsuitable and 
inharmonious mantel. To select a design which is 
in accord with the general plan architectural of the 
room is essential. I'here are on the market many 
chimney-pieces and mantels ready to set in place. 
These are planned to fill the architectural require¬ 
ments of various rooms of special design. The 
Colonial man¬ 
tels here repro¬ 
duced, in sim¬ 
plicity of design 
and correct pro¬ 
portion cannot 
be improved. 
Mantels such 
as these would 
be f oLi nd en- 
t i r e 1 y suitable 
for use in rccms 
where the Col¬ 
onial idea is 
dominant. 
A wider field 
is covered bv 
mantels of brick 
and tile. Many 
of the former 
are built on 
quaint lines 
suggestive of 
Colonial days 
MANTEL WITH FIREPLACE OF ROUGH BRICK 
104 
We are indebted to The Colonial Fireplace Co., Chicago; The Rookwood Pottery Co., Cincinnati, and 
h. A. Jackson & Brother, New T'ork, for the accompanying illustrations 
