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The Hand-Carved Hearthside Mantel Collection encompasses the finest cuts of newly quarried French limestone and marble.
A European tradition dating back thousands of years, the Greeks and Romans chose to hand-carve marble for the inherent beauty brought to form and structures across Europe. Marble is a metamorphic rock formed by the alteration of limestone by heat and pressure – the calcite in the limestone changes while fossils and layering in the original limestone disappear and interlocking grains grow.
Shades of marble vary due to different minerals found the stone, but are usually light in color when formed, with very few impurities.
Many of the marble names we know today still originate from the quarries in which they were discovered, such as Carrara in Italy, Pentelicus located in Greece and Proconnesus in Turkey. White Carrara marble is particularly prevalent in sculptures due to its softness and relative resistance to shattering. Due to the low index of refraction, it allows light to penetrate into the stone before the light is scattered out, giving the sculpture a life-like appearance.
From a mass of tiny sea creatures to an ancient seabed, and millions of years later set into a mountainside, the newly quarried French limestone is broken into slabs, cut into smaller blocks and hand-carved into the final fireplace mantel design.
French limestone is incredibly diverse in color. With over 64 quarries throughout France, popular colors range from soft creams to beige, to more earthy tones such as grey and black.
