Does anyone have same fireplace as us? Georgian/Victorian

[philipchild]

Hello,
We are in the process of renovating our flat which is part of a Georgian house built in approximately 1800. To our delight we uncovered an old cast iron arched fireplace insert behind a ~1960s gas fire. Unfortunately the front bars and damper flap are missing and I would very much like to find out exactly what the fire would have looked like when it was intact. I have looked through countless reclamation yards and checked the other houses in our street without success. Does anyone have an identical fireplace in their house? Please see attached images for reference.
I am also interested in finding out what period the fire is from. I am unsure whether it was the original fireplace or not. From my untrained eye it looks early Victorian.

Thanks,

Philip

View attachment 1

 

[Anita]

Hi, It would probably be something like this - round bars, curving outwards (sorry don't know the technical terms). We had one in our last house which was an 1864 town house- but don't have any close up pics.

http://www.olde-worlde-fireplaces.co.uk/html/cast_iron_inserts_14.html.

or this

http://www.salvo.co.uk/images/userimgs/10756/45373_1.jpg

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a gorgeous find - lucky you!

I think it's Victorian too, not that I'm any kind of expert.

I've got simple Georgian fireplaces, you can view them in this thread if you're interested.

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10218

I wouldn't worry too much about the missing bits, it looks lovely. My fireplaces have got those bits missing too; I've hunted high and low to find suitable replacements.

 

[skier-hughes]

As close as you'll get to identical maybe

http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10299&p=120903&hilit=fireplace+black#p120903

I'll put some finished pics up in a second as it's just been fitted yesterday.

You are missing several pieces, and I'm not sure what any of them are called but you can see them all on the pics.

 

[Feltwell]

Can't help with what it looked like originally, but this website seems to have one of the better selection of fireplace spares. It was the only place that I could find that does replacement mantle shelves, but they do lots of different styles of bars.

http://www.bygones.net/Subcat_Thumbs.asp?strCategory=FIREPLACE SPARES&SubCategory=Fireplace_Bars

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a marvellous website- thanks Feltwell! I think this will finally sort out my incomplete fireplaces.

Chris won't be pleased with you though for putting me onto that: just seen a Victorian lamp post, a nice red telephone box, and a sleeping stone lion that are asking very nicely to come and live here.

 

[philipchild]

Thanks for all your replies and links. I have just been informed that the pattern around the arch of the fire is honeysuckle and is very unusual to see on a fireplace in this way. Apparently this dates the fire to the early 19th centery which is when my house was built. Although getting a set of generic replacemnt bars would be ok I am still really keen to track down an original set of bars which I could cast from. I know the chance of finding any is very slim though. Does anyone have any historic catalougues of fireplace designs from foundries? Or know where I would go about getting such a thing?

Thanks again,

P

 

[Feltwell]

I think your chances are slim. One problem is identifying the foundry - do have a good look, but chances are any identifying marks are on the rear. I found out mine were made by Biclam (Bennents Iron Company Limited Ardwick Manchester) only because I found smashed pieces in the cellar of one removed fireplace. Foundry catalogues are a possibilty, but first you need to know the foundry - and there were a lot of them!

However - 18 months of searching Ebay every week did eventually turn an identical fireplace up for me. I did actually find one sooner than that in a dealers, but over £1000 for a plain modest sized bedroom combination fireplace was way too expensive.

Have a good web search, you might find something the same, and there are always lots on Ebay. I think personally if it's just for bars I'd find some that look appropriate and be happy with that, but that is just my opinion. You might be lucky if yours is a common fireplace - I kept on finding "The Scotia", which looked very similar to my Biclam fireplace - I must have found 20 of those over the course of a year, in all states of repair.

 

[Feltwell]

Chris won't be pleased with you though for putting me onto that: just seen a Victorian lamp post, a nice red telephone box, and a sleeping stone lion that are asking very nicely to come and live here.

Sorry Chris!

You can get a lamp post, phone box or lion in the future - why not just stick to the fires first?

 

[philipchild]

>>Feltwell
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one stubbornly searching of ebay every day. I have been pretty extensive about searching on-line so I think it will be just a case of crossing my fingers and waiting on ebay. It's nice to know you actually found a matching fire after all that time - I imagine you couldn't quite believe it!

 

[Feltwell]

>>Feltwell
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one stubbornly searching of ebay every day. I have been pretty extensive about searching on-line so I think it will be just a case of crossing my fingers and waiting on ebay. It's nice to know you actually found a matching fire after all that time - I imagine you couldn't quite believe it!

It was very lucky indeed. What I actually found was a much larger version of the original bedroom fireplace I had upstairs - perfect to go in my dining room, where the original fireplace had long gone. I don't know of course if it was the same as the original one in that room, but as it matches exactly the one upstairs and the smashed one (originally from another bedroom) there is a good chance. It is missing it's mantle shelf however, hence how I found the website above! Oh, and I had to go and fetch it from Colchester - an awful long way from where it was made in Manchester - but worth the trip.

I've actually now found all the pieces of the broken fireplace, and at some point will have a go at stitching it all back together. Done carefully, and then painted before being leaded, I may be able to hide the lines where the castings have been broken - it's got to be worth a go, to at least be able to have it as a non-working fireplace.