400 YEARS OF FIREPLACES


carved for reasons of economy. Some entire chimneypieces were even manufactured from papier-mâché. By the 1790s reeded surrounds with corner roundels (or paterae) became a common pattern which prevailed for several decades.


The early 1800s were a period of architectural eclecticism, so chimneypieces in important houses reflected contemporary interests in Greek, Egyptian, Gothic as well as Jacobean styles. In all cases the hearth would invariably be made of local stone.


VICTORIAN Count Rumford was an American technologist who as early as 1790 applied scientific principles to fireplace efficiency. He recommended placing the fire lower in the opening, narrowing the throat of the flue, reducing the size of the fireplace opening and lining it with a firebrick surround. His aim was to provide better draught control and to reflect more heat back into the room. Despite the benefits, Rumford’s recommendations were slow to catch on in Britain and it took 100 years before they were adopted universally. Existing fireplaces were ‘Rumfordised’ and new fireplaces were built to his recommendations.


The early Victorian chimneypiece still consisted of flat jambs and a lintel supporting a mantelshelf. This pattern was reproduced in timber, plaster or stone and could be enriched with a variety of mouldings according to taste. Cheaper materials such as timber or slate were frequently painted to imitate marble.


The ‘register-grate’ was introduced from about 1850 and combined the throating, the fireback and the firebasket. Its design incorporated dampers to control the supply of combustion air and an adjustable trap door to control of the flow of flue gases. The draught could be reduced once the fire was well established. They were typically manufactured with an arched top in either cast iron or bright steel.


Ironfounders captured the market for fireplaces in the latter half of the 19th century. They produced fireplaces in every conceivable style and size. Companies like Coalbrookdale produced catalogues of cast-iron surrounds that could be cast integrally or separately from their firegrates.


Splay sided fire surrounds with decorative tile inlays replaced the arch-topped variety in the 1870s. The splayed cheeks reflected heat into the room and were used for decorative effect. As designs developed there was a tendency for the fire to project further forward so integral cast-iron hoods became commonplace during the 1880s.


Continued >> 76 Listed Heritage Magazine September/October 2018


White marble surrounds with corner roundels became extremely popular in the late Georgian and Regency periods. This one incorporates an oven alongside the hobgrate


This 19th-century hobgrate uses a Tudor arch with enriched spandrels in a decorative pink marble surround


The register-grate was used extensively in the second half of the Victorian period. In this example the whole fireplace is manufactured as one casting including the surround and mantel shelf


Decorative ceramic tiles were common in fire surrounds from the 1870s


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