This weeks blog shares our new reproduction fire surround designs, and a recently restored Antique Chimneypiece that has been stood in the showroom. New Jamb designs are not seasonal or systematically pushed , but created when true inspiration arrives. As anyone knows in the antiques trade you never know when those moments are going to arrive.
The Somerset Reproduction fire surround.
The Somerset was drawn after finding a fragment of a drawing relating to a chimneypiece that stood in Somerset house. William Chambers was the architect of the house but the designer of the actual fireplace was John Yenn, his apprentice, who worked as clerk of works also at Kensington Palace, Buckingham House and the Royal Mews. Yenn eventually went on to become an architect in his full right, succeeding Chambers as the architect at Blenheim Palace.
It is neo classical in style and extremely elegant in white marble with a tiered moulded shelf.
The Holwood Reproduction Design.
The Holwood is based on a design by Sir John Soane, the modern architect of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The Holwood has a similar style as the chimneypieces he designed for No 10 and 11 Downing street – the same feel and same proportions. It is clean, contemporary and chic.
The St James Bolection Fire Surround
The St James has been designed from many inspirations, the main one being a very early chimneypiece from the Grade I Belton House – the quintessential example of the English Country house and everything that Jamb is inspired by. The seventeenth century house is built from Ancaster stone, a Lincolnshire quarried stone that we make many of our fireplaces from. The bolection would have originally stood inside a Gillows panelled wooden room and the three hundred year old design proves how timeless it is. Although the St James has been in the collection for some years, it has recently had a renaissance now we have our own large stock of Breche marble enabling us to handcarve it in three months as opposed to six.
The Clarence Reproduction Fire surround
The Clarence reproduction fireplace design is inspired from an antique Regency chimneypiece we have owned. Some of the antiques we sell are such good models we are compelled to take elements of their designs in their own right.
The Lincoln Reproduction Fire Surround
The Lincoln is based on another Soane chimneypiece design and we had the great fortune to own the original that was in the Bank of England.
Our antique chimneypiece addition to the showroom
I always feel so fortunate to own the antique chimneypieces that pass through our hands, and we have a new and exciting addition to our showroom. A fifteenth century style Istrian stone marriage chimneypiece with a peacock and a pair of embracing swans symbolizing everlasting love. As we have over one hundred and fifty antique chimneypieces in our collection, we try to change the antique pieces on view as often as we can, but this is hard when some piece are as large as the following 18th century Palladian Chimneypiece. It measures over two meters on the shelf and is magnificent! We are hoping that it will find its next home soon but it will certainly be an antique fire surround we will always love.
A Magnificent 18th century Palladian Chimneypiece