the rectangular shelf with beautifully carved layers of ornament incorporating bands of dentil, lambrequin and other mouldings, above a frieze ornamented in deep relief with scrolling foliate carvings and centred by a tablet applied with a ribbon-tied swag of roses, raised on panelled jambs cut with arched fielded panels, raised on block feet,

The frieze of this fireplace is exuberantly carved and is a good example. Such wooden fireplaces were increasingly executed in pine and gesso – either way they were always painted. We have removed countless layers of paint. The fireplaces of this type would normally have been raised on “eared” jambs: stick-like legs with out-set corners, usually framing marble “ingrounds”. Such is the spindly nature of those legs they are often lost if the fireplace is ever dismantled and stored. Here though, at some point in the distant past and with the original legs gone, someone has replaced them with a rather more study pair of legs – a good match and it has a more architectural presence.