We get used to see a modern gas fireplace mantels as inalienable part of the whole hearth surrounds, albeit it is not the oldest version. A mantelshelf as external accessories of a fireplace was invented in the Middle Ages to protect a wall from a smoke and flammability, when central location of hearth in a room was substituted by built-in a wall accommodation.
In other words, the first mantel usage was rather functional and simple. And as far as one of copper’s attributes is a heat reflection, it was popularly exploited for mantelshelf during long period of time in the past. Modernsolutions of a gas fireplace mantels design is not an exception. It comprises a set of new ideas with copper usage.
Despite of copper, there were stone and marble broadly used to make mantelpieces in the past. The hearth’s element was commenced to use as the one of the dominant parts of a hearth surround decoration. And a lot of world’s famous sculptors and architects like Inigo Jones, Giambattista Piranesi, and Christopher Wren utilize the mantelshelf to demonstrate their skills in a very advantageous view. Although stone and marble have a tension to keep the heat in and give it away gradually after the fire have stopped burning, both materials have an extraordinary aesthetic qualities, that is why they continue to be used for moderngas fireplacemantels and surrounds which pretend to look traditionally.
A width of mantel-shelvesincreased to place clocks, candles and other decorations in Victorian period and afterwards it begun being used for particular style and interior ornamentation. And we can see that the tradition has been evolving for several centuries. In conclusion, contemporarygas fireplace mantels ideascan associate not only with architectural focal point but even with permanent piece of art.
