This Arts and crafts style mantel that we manufacture in Manchester is a faithful copy of a 1910 mantel originally came from Southern Scotland. The influence of the Glasgow School of Art, and of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in particular are obvious.

The mantel itself features a delicately tapering, free standing square section columns that stand in front of the main mantel body. The mantel's frieze has a central "demi- lune" rounded shelf supported by a single bracket over the fireplace opening. On either side of the mantel shelf is hand carved detailing . This rose-derived carving detail is hand carved by a local Stockport craftsman.

The original was in a brown mahogany, but almost all the reproductions of it that we have made have been in oak. The european or north american oak that we use is fairly well guaranteed to have come from a managed forest that will be replanted.

We have come across other original versions of this mantel that feature grooved columns. These can and have been incorporated into the design according to customers wishes.
This fireplace mantel is sold most often with our tiled Edwardian arch insert, but it also suits original beaten copper fireplace inserts that are very much in that Arts and Crafts tradition.
By 1910, tiled interiors for wooden mantels were quickly replacing the cast iron inserts so popular in late Victorian times. With a well crafted mantel such as this, a mass produced fireplace made in cast iron would been seen as a something of a travesty, one of the central tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement being the hand-worked character of the design.

Hearths in the Edwardian era were almost always tiled, and finished level with the floorboards often surrounded with a fender of some description.