Monday 6 March 2017

A plan comes together


At last I can retrieve this photo of - possibly - the job which encapsulates near perfect communication between a client who knows what he wants and the right person to do it. It is a rare thing when it all comes together. His wife was dead against it, saying it was too big for their small but ancient home.

It is a very simple thing, very simply done, but I fucking love it. It is the stone world's equivalent of sacred music - nobody takes the blame.

40 comments:

  1. Rachel thought it looked like testicles the first time around.

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  2. I have always loved it, too. If the Nigerians ever offer me those $10 million I'm certainly going to have a pear fireplace like that in no time. You will be my go-to-guy.

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  3. So glad you got the picture back. It is pretty close to perfect. Mrs. Homeowner must think so, too, as she has furnished the area so simply. What, do you suppose, is the purpose of the polished wood box on the hearth?

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    1. I'm not sure what you refer to Joanne, but maybe the back-plate? This is and was a massive bit of cast iron which soaks up the heat from the logs and radiates outwards into the room. If there is really a polished wooden box, then it is to store and transport wood.

      The back plate is alwys decorated, usually with the coat of arms of the family, hunting scenes or the like.

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    2. P.S. Mr Homeowner does the furnishings. He secretely buys 17th century oak, stores it for a while in the attic, then tells his wife that they bought it years ago and she has forgotten. I have helped him buy this furniture. We have the same mindset.

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    3. PPS - Perfect would be inferior. Stuff like this must be deliberately and unselfconsciously imperfect to be classically 17th century. That is the sublime beauty of it to me. It takes sensistivity to produce such an imperfect thing.

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    4. Now I sound like a wanker, but it is true...

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    5. I think the wooden box is to remind Mr Owner where he left the TV zappers.

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    6. Now I think of it, I don't remember seeing a TV in the house. Maybe it is in a big Elizabethan chest.

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  4. Stonework leaves me a bit cold ( except a hidden gargoyle , (the photo i have just sent to you)
    But this is quite lovely

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    1. I feel the same (in a non-professional way) about most stonework too. That photo is great. I love all the naughty humour in ecclesiastical stonework. Some of it is actually obscene.

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  5. Is it ok to love it WITHOUT the F-word?? I really love it and you are really really good at this, Tom.

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  6. Oh he is very good indeed at doing what himself enjoys best.

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    1. I enjoy it when the client has a very clear picture of what they want and the good taste to go with it.

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  7. Very nice indeed. How long did that take you to do?

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    1. I don't remember - some weeks. I got someone else to install it.

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  8. I'd be pretty proud of that job too. Nice to think it'll be pleasing people for hundreds of years to come. Good job.

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    1. His wife was terrified that - being so huge - it would be a catastrophic failure and dominate the room forever, but his friends now say that they would not have known that it didn't come with the house. Originally, a fire surround of this size would have been part of the structural wall, but in this case they built a wall around it and lost 6 inches of room-space!

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    2. I meant the thing being so huge, not his wife.

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  9. Just needs one of those pressed metal fires stood inside the hearth - you know the sort with a damned great gas tank in side. Or maybe not.

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  10. I remember your posting a picture of it and have always remembered how beautiful it is. Indeed, you are, too!

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    1. I dug it out because I am about to do.something quite similar.

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  11. Beautiful! Complimenti!
    Greetings Maria x

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  12. Ever wondered what those lidded pot things are on the bottom of the legs? They are pots of food representing hospitality.

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    1. That is wonderful and completes the scene then; fire and food, comfort and warmth are great symbols of hospitality. X

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  13. Beautiful and goes perfectly in that place. Just stunning.

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  14. What exquisite work! Beautiful.

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  15. I think I will have to move on now. I am beginning to dislike myself.

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  16. I love it. I may have to recreate the design in rhinestones on a costume bodice. ;-)

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