£3,780
Auction: 12 October 2022 at 11:00 BST
cast iron, plated copper & Cipollino marble, bears cast inscription of a riddle to the left-hand panel THE FIRE MY GLITTERING FATHER IS/ TH' EARTH'S MY MOTHER KIND / THE SEA MY YOUNGER BROTHER IS/ BUT ME NO MAN CAN FIND, and to the right-hand panel WHO CAN STAND AGAINST HIS COLD
Provenance: 8, Grand Avenue, Hove, until removed in 2019.
Note: George Jack exhibited a fire grate of this design at the fourth annual arts and crafts exhibition in 1893. It was shown in the north room of the New Gallery at 121 Regent Street, London, as item number 169. The Studio magazine reviewed the exhibition, where they commended the 'quiet unostentation of the chimney piece proper and the iron grate it houses'
At least two other examples of this fireplace are known to have been made. One was supplied in 1895 to the 3rd marquess of Bute's House of Falkland, Fife, Scotland for Lady Margaret's sitting room where it remains today. It differs only by being dated quite visibly on the right-hand panel. Another example (with Carrara marble) was used by the Scottish architect James Miller (1860-1947) in the Royal reception rooms of the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901. It was possibly then relocated for use in a bedroom at Coupar Grange in Perthshire, also designed by Miller (completed 1902) as it can again be seen there in a photograph of circa 1904.