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Can you tell me a little about this clock and this fireplace?

Sure! This fireplace and its accoutrements were designed and installed by the design firm of the Herter Brothers for John Sloane who was a partner at W & J Sloane, a New York furniture company. The fireplace is designed in the Jacobean Revival style, influenced by 16th-century English furniture and design. It's massive, and yet finely detailed.

The clock itself was not designed by the Herter brothers, but actually imported from France.

Why doesn't the base of the wood column meet the mantle on this piece?

This mantel is a fragment of a period room in storage and so was never meant to be an independent object.

Do you have any thoughts as to why they might not touch?

We thought that there might be a missing piece of decorative molding?

That's a pretty good theory.

Is there anything about the style or form that looks incomplete to you? Like something might be missing?

Yes, the entire length of the mantle had a large gap between the base of the top piece

I see. Yes. I think that's because the entire work was acquired directly from the owner's house. So it was disassembled there and reassembled here...

I suppose it's possible it used to fit together more tightly, but I couldn't say.

What drew you to the fireplace in particular?

I love Herter Brothers so I was immediately drawn to it. I also noticed holes in the marble of the fireplace

What can you tell me about this?

This fireplace surround was once part of an elaborately decorated library in a mansion on Fifth Avenue (near the Metropolitan Museum of Art today). The room was designed by the Herter Brothers, who were one of the leading interior design and cabinetmaking firms in New York. Many of their clients were so-called "robber barons" -- self-made Americans with vast personal fortunes who wished to furnish their new luxurious homes in a style that looked historic. This fireplace is in the Jacobean Revival style; the finely carved woodwork resembles architecture and furniture from 17th-century England.

Can you tell me more about all of this?

This fireplace and its various parts were designed and installed by the firm of the Herter Brothers for John Sloane, who was a partner at W. & J. Sloane, a NY furniture company. The fireplace is designed in the Jacobean Revival Style, influenced by 16th century English furniture and design. The Jacobean style was noted for its 3-dimensional fullness of the design, which I think comes across with this sturdy mahogany fireplac

Cornice from Top of Fireplace

Decorative Arts and Design

In 1882 John Sloane, a partner in the New York furniture retailer W. & J. Sloane, paid Herter Brothers $16,075 for the decoration of his Fifth Avenue mansion. The library’s woodwork and furniture, and much of its contents—paintings and objects—are preserved in the Museum. This mantel is rendered in the Jacobean Revival style, inspired by the arts of sixteenth-century England. Herter Brothers not only made the woodwork and furniture, but also supplied other decorative elements, including the elaborate curtains, objects, and imported French fireplace accoutrements such as the brass sconces, clock garniture, and fire screen.

MAKER Unknown

RETAILER Herter Brothers, American, 1865–1905

MEDIUM Mahogany, marble

Place Made: New York, New York, United States

DATES ca. 1881

DIMENSIONS 14 3/4 x 100 1/4 x 7 in. (37.5 x 254.6 x 17.8 cm)

COLLECTIONS Decorative Arts and Design

ACCESSION NUMBER 41.980.72a

CREDIT LINE Gift of Mrs. William E. S. Griswold in memory of her father, John Sloane

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Mahogany cornice with marble insets atop mantel (41.980.72a-e); upper edge stepped back as it descends to double row of dentil courses. Front panel carved with horizontal elongated scrolls with reeded and beaded borders. Scrolls flank inset pieces of marble within carved frame: three rectangular pieces in center and two oval ones at ends; marble is salmon-colored with brown veins. [Photograph shows mantle in its original location, the library of the house of John Sloane, 883 Fifth Avenue, New York City, decorated by Herter Brothers, 1881-82.]

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.