Marble is a beautiful stone and when used to make fireplaces can make your room look elegant and sophisticated or cool and contemporary . Marble is a timeless stone and and has been used as a fireplace material throughout the changing style periods. It is just as well suited to to the contemporary styling of today's 'Minimalist' movement as it was in the English Baroque Period (1688-1714).
In General today's marble fireplaces found in the UK can be divided into two categories:- Those made from European Marbles and those made from Asian Marbles.
The Asian marble fireplaces tend to dominate the UK fireplace market, because of price and purity of stone. As you can see from the two marble fireplaces on the right people who are looking to restore period properties can buy perfect period reproductions in this quality natural white marble.
The most famous and widely used European marble is Carrara Marble which comes from Carrara in Italy. Whilst Carrara Marble is obtainable as a pure white marble this tends to be reserved for statutory carving. Probably the most famous statutory carving in Carrara white marble is Michealangelo's David. However on a somewhat smaller scale, marble fireplaces in general are carved from carrara marble that has a higher grey vein content. This gives the familiar bluey grey hue to the marble with the familiar veining and dappled appearance. These fireplaces tend to be more expensive than the Asian marbles due to production costs being much higher. The veining and dappled appearance in Carrara marble is a characteristic of the marble and not a flaw. The Venetian white marble shown on the right is far more consitently white and although it may contain veining it is far less prominent.
There are of course other colours of marble available for fireplaces but they are not widely available to the UK consumer. In order to obtain one of these fireplaces you would need to contact a specialist marble fireplace retailer, stonemasons who work with marble, or some good reclamation yards.
Another good source to obtain period marble fireplaces are reclamation yards. Here you can find some good period fireplaces that with a little care and thoughtful restoration can go on to service your home for many years to come. Cracks can be repaired and holes filled to restore the fireplace to it's former glory. Seek the advice of a local stonemason who will be able to offer you pointers or carry out the restoration for you.
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Marble Fireplaces - Free Advice on Marble Fireplaces |
