Ęsthetic Value - Historical Significance - Period Styles - Arrangement of Furniture about Fireplace - Materials.

Period Styles In Fireplaces

The history of the fireplace is very closely connected with the history of furniture and it is hardly possible to study the various phases of the one without noting parallel similarities of design and construction in the other. Each art period had its own characteristics which were shown in the design of the furniture and the fireplace of that time alike, so they seemed harmonious and belonged together.

Fireplace Should Accord With House And Furnishings

To-day we are living in an age in which people are trying to select the best points of all past art periods and adapt them to their own use. It is here that the great danger lies. Many a householder who has been entirely consistent in the selection of furniture and in the treatment of walls and floors, fails absolutely in the choice of a suitable chimney piece which will accord with the general scheme of decoration. Gothic mantels are placed in rooms furnished in Adam style, Italian hearths are obliged to dwell with French furniture, and Renaissance fireplaces are set up in modern halls. An utter disregard is often to be observed in a suitable relation between the fireplace and the rest of the furnishings of the room.

A Part Of The Architectural Structure

The fireplace should first seem a part of the architectural plan of the room. It should appear to grow out of, or, rather, into, the wall itself. Fireplaces may project into the room, or sink into the wall. They may have large ornamental hoods or mantels, or may be decorated by applying some sort of flat ornamentation to the wall space above the opening. They may have chimney pieces of stone, brick, metal, or wood, but in each and every case the lines should follow the lines of the wall moldings and should embody in structure and design the dominant idea of the room.

Dignity

No matter how informal the rest of the room may be, the fireplace should always possess great dignity. Any useful object is always dignified, to a certain extent, and the fireplace is fundamentally useful. The first fireplaces stood in the center of the room and the smoke passed through a hole in the roof. It was a thing of use rather than of beauty. Since that time every age has had its manner of building and naturally has developed a certain kind of ornamentation which served to emphasize the idea of use. The French developed one style of fireplace, the Italians developed another, and the English still another, but each followed the rules which governed the period in which it was built and at the same time never forgot the idea of its functional purpose.

Utility

The idea of use was still uppermost in the minds of the first settlers who came to this country. The fireplaces built by those brave and sturdy men were homely, substantial structures, and the spirit kindled by the glow from such a hearthstone should be preserved by the people of our nation as one of the most valuable of the artistic and aesthetic legacies handed down by the Pilgrim Fathers. Some of the older generation to-day still treasure as their most sacred memory the mental picture of the big country kitchen of their childhood home, with its great stone fireplace and oven of bricks. They can even yet see the housemother's figure moving briskly from fireside to table, tending the roasting of the goose or turkey for the Thanksgiving dinner and preparing the invariable pumpkin and mince pies.