The French style fireplace is the most elegant in history, and the French influence on the English fireplace goes back to the first part of the 17^th century. The architect Inigo Jones was greatly inspired by both French and Italian designs, and brought these together, along with other influences, to create beautiful fireplaces of his own. So impressed was Jones with these styles, he taught British artisans to fashion such fireplaces- in doing so, Jones left a legacy of some of the most beautifully ornate fireplaces in existence. Fine examples of these are found in the reproductions popular across America.

The influence of the French style fireplace could increasingly be seen in the latter part of the 17^th century. Fireplace design continued to be dictated by architects and, in accordance with popular architecture, new styles were different from what had gone before. The Louis XV scrolls and curved lines became popular for a while, and again this style was very popular across America (and still is today).

This style quickly went out of fashion, and Christopher Wren became the next major influence on fireplace design. He built on the training provided by Jones to master craftsmen, and a complex mix of continental and English tastes began to emerge. The Queen Anne style was borne, becoming synonymous with the name of Christopher Wren.

Wren also liked fireplaces built across the corner of a room, an idea taken directly from the French. Examples of such fireplaces by Wren can be seen at Hampton Court Palace and at the Queens house at Greenwich. Wren had the honour of being made Director of Royal Building and thus was commissioned by King William and Queen Mary to design the new palace at Hampton Court. In the King’s drawing room, there is a beautifully simplistic French style corner fireplace. However, amongst the general public the corner fireplace attracted criticism because families could not gather around the hearth in the traditional way. 

In the early 18^th century, the French style Louis XIV fireplace became popular in England for a while, before losing out to the extravagance of the Chippendale style. The Louis French – style fireplace that became popular in Europe and America during the 19^th century mimicked the type of fireplaces popular during the reigns of Louis XIV, XV and XVI.

In reality, these replicas made by French architects and artisans in the Victorian era were much less ornate than the original Louis fireplaces. However, the Victorian Louis XV fireplace was much more graceful than the British fireplaces of the era – the French style fireplace was often made by Italian craftsmen, with the finishing being undertaken by French artisans. It is this workmanship that makes the Louis XV fireplace popular to this day.

The early Georgian period saw the emergence of the Rococo-style French fireplace throughout Europe. Rococo was a style of 18^th century French art and interior design, with the word Rococo coming from a combination of the French rocaille (shell) and the Italian barocco, meaning Baroque style. As the name implies, the Rococo style featured curves that resembled a shell.  

The Rococo French fireplace opposed the strict Palladian rules of symmetry, with the fireplace opening featuring beautifully curved strips of marble – the elongated ‘s’ shapes were referred to as serpentine lines. A popular material used for the Rococo surround was a coloured marble named marbre d’ Antin, and this was a mixture of red, yellow and violet, with grey streaks. Overmantel oval mirrors were popular, and in some homes, entire walls and ceilings were extravagantly lined with mirrors – fireplace openings were also given the same treatment. Chimneypieces were often fashioned from carved wood or moulded plaster, and then decorated with a gilded bronze, known as ormolu. Common rococo motifs included flowers, foliage, and ribbons.

In England, Rococo was always known as ‘the French taste’ and the style was often derogatively referred to as frivolous, merely fashion – when the term was first used in England around 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning ‘old-fashioned’. However, the style has been recognised by art historians since the mid-nineteenth century. Rococo fell out of fashion in France in 1785, but remained popular in Italy until the Empire style arrived.

The simplicity of the Adam style was revived during the Victorian era and thus a variety of classical styles came onto the market, all of them attempting to evoke the feelings of classical Rome and Greece. It was the French Empire style that was regarded as being the most chic during the second half of the 19^th century. This simple style used clear rectangular forms and there was an emphasis on small figures, which were often used as ornamental decoration.

In the early Victorian period, most French style fireplaces projected nine inches out from the wall. The front was flat with a wide rectangular opening, and today there is a huge demand for marble fireplaces in this style – originals have been exported from France to all over the world. French fireplaces were generally made by Italian craftsmen, but were decorated and carved by their own artisans. Louis XV surrounds and mantels feature graceful curves in the Rococo style, while the Louis XVI fireplaces are square and masculine. It is the small and feminine Louis XV, which has been the most in demand in modern times – the Louis XVI looked very much like many traditional English designs.