The antique fireplaces of the 19th century owe their huge variety of style to the industrial revolution and rapid improvements in health care and hygiene. Longer life expectancy and a growing birth rate contributed to the huge population explosion during this period, which in turn led to an unprecedented level of house building.
The rise in the manufacturing middle-classes and the availability of cheap, mass-produced goods, meant that, for the first time, interior style and decoration was not just for the wealthy.
Cast iron fireplaces and grates became enormously popular and they were available in a huge range of styles. In fact, the Victorian Age has also been referred to as ‘the age of the battle of the styles’. 19th century fireplaces were particularly decorative.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, the Georgian fireplace was in vogue, followed by the Greek, Gothic and Elizabethan styles. The cast iron fireplace beneath an arched marble mantelpiece probably did exist in somebody’s home in the nineteenth century!
Despite the limitations of mass production, cast iron fire surrounds were highly decorative, ranging from the small and delicate to the huge and grandly ornate. Notwithstanding the decoration of the surround, the cast iron grate itself was always comparatively small; it was generally agreed that there was no need for enormous grates because the polished metal aided heat radiation.
The early Victorians were renowned for their zealous over-decoration: they favoured neo-Gothic and Elizabethan architectural styles and this was reflected in the fireplaces and mantels of the period. With the rise of the ‘self-made man,’ aristocrats were no longer the epitome of style. This role fell to the rich industrialists, and their style was anything that would demonstrate their newly acquired wealth – hence the rather unusual mixture of styles.
