Many fireplaces are not now well proportioned indeed I would say most are post WWII when low cost and ease of installation became the primary concerns in fireplace installation. They have always played a part of course but with austerity and the reduced post war labour supply they became dominant.

Fireplace proportions in the late 19th and early 20th century were generally excellent, this was the era of technically efficient fireplaces and the use of glazed tiles in them so the time period I will primarily address, 1877 - 1916.

Design Basics

The top of the shelf should not be visible when seated, effectively that means the shelf top should be at least 45 inches above floor level, usually 46" - 48".

The body of the fireplace should be no more than one-third the length of wall that it is on, the shelf may be slightly more.

The hearth should be as small as possible, the hearth is primarily for safety, a noncombustible area to prevent the floorboards catching fire. It can not be easily seen from seated position due to the angle of view and will often be partially hidden by fender, firetools, coal bucket etc.

As a general guide the plainer the better for hearths the primary exceptions being halls, clubrooms, entertaining rooms etc. where people may be standing and have a good view of the hearth. Fireplaces would usually then be larger and offer sufficient hearth area to facilitate a good design.

Chimney breasts were usually sized according to the number of bricks, the commonest sizes in ordinary victorian houses being 57 inches, 66 inches and 75 inches, six, seven or eight 9 inch bricks respectively with mortar between and plaster either side.

There were of course more rudimentary houses those built for farm workers, labourers etc., with little or no decorative consideration, I do not address such here rather I address the kinds of houses that people would aspire to own.

From 1940s onwards fireplaces tended to be lower meaning that the shelf surface (and perhaps dust on it) could be seen from seated position. Hearths were larger, wider than the rest of the fireplace, and slabbed thick so they could be simply placed on the floor rather than being set in. And of course they were usually made from mottled tiles in uninspiring colours presumably as people were persuaded that postwar austerity demanded such. All sense of balance and proportion had been removed, it is difficult to design something new that is good when the correct way has already been perfected.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries builders usually wanted to fit as large a fireplace as possible and economical and in smaller reception rooms they may be a little large. Fireplaces were an important part of the house so much of life being spent sitting in front of the fire, a large fireplace psychologically suggests a warm house.

The standard sizes of mantelpiece shelves were slightly mismatched with chimneys being 5 feet, 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet, a result of this was that most 57 inch chimney breasts had a 60" shelf on them. Apparently quite acceptable in the day we found that people 'restoring' their houses prefer a shelf that fits neatly on the chimney breast coming close to the edges but not over hanging, so we made reproductions, originals with the magic 54" - 56" shelf that fitted standard size cast iron inserts were 20% - 30% premium priced.

There are of course houses built to architects specifications where chimney breasts are not based upon the number of full size bricks but such are few and far between in smaller scale houses most of which were built in bulk, often a road at a time, by a single builder.

Mantels were usually delivered to site in four pieces, a pair of jambs, the frieze and the shelf, so the exact proportions they were assembled in may vary according to the installer. The jambs don't look well sitting too close to the edges of the chimney breast so some fitters moved them in, if they are moved in too much the overhang of the shelf on the jamb can be excessive, three inches is about optimal, more than four on a five feet or so mantelpiece starts to look disproportionate.

The usual dimensions of a fireplace in an approximate 12 - 15 feet by 11 - 13 feet reception room with a 57 inch chimney breast would be.

Shelf width 60"

Shelf height 47"

Hearth width 42" - to the mid point of the plinth

Hearth depth 12" to mantel plinths

Hearth depth 16" to wall

All plus or minus an inch or so with variations in materials, angles etc.

In larger rooms it was only the width that changed significantly until one gets in to rooms of substantial proportions greater than 20 feet by 15 feet and so mantel shelves wider than 6 feet. In hardware catalogues of the time standard size mantels in hardware catalogues of the time max out at 6 feet wide, hearths are a maximum of 4 feet 6 inches wide. A mantelpiece with a shelf of 5' 6" should have a 4' hearth, with a shelf of 6' should have a 4' 6" hearth. The hearth size should actually be determined by the width to the outside of the mantel's plinths but that is a rather esoteric dimension and as most mantels conform to good proportions the shelf width will usually suffice.

As people have been conditioned in to believing hearths should be big and even wider than the shelf here are some illustrations from original catalogues. First we should note that the largest size is 4' 6", for the grand fireplaces they wanted to sell most of, those with shelves at 6' wide. We should also note that the almost obligatory depth is 12" in front of the plinths and 18" into the recess under the cast iron.

Two of the more elaborate designs are shown with their equivalent for splashbacks, note the the 4' 6" rococo hearth has been extended by plain 3" x 3" tiles as well as a 3" wide border.

I have included some examples of plainer hearths, there tend to be quite a few in the catalogues even though the sale of more expensive decorated hearths were obviously preferred by the vendor. My preference for hearths in domestic interiors is a chequer pattern in 3" square tiles with a double border or triple border, this in my opinion is the perfect compromise between decoration and simplicity bearing in mind the function. A double border consists of one inch and two inch or a triple border of half inch, one inch and one and a half inches. A double border is like 3390 below however I would have different colours for the borders than for the chequers, and always rather muted colours and using several does not limit future redecorations as fewer does, I have added a simple drawing at the bottom.

 

To finish off here's the layout with overlaid profile of typical cast iron grate and mantel's plinths:

Hearths in the 19th and 20th centuries

Hearths being required to be as small as possible to be low cost and near invisible and were almost inevitably in a local sandstone, only one face finished and uneven thickness of two inches or so. Even in Wales most hearths were sandstone sourced from a nearby quarry almost inevitably within 10 - 15 miles, transportation was a more important cost consideration in those days. Slate was too fine a material for such use, it is softer so less hard wearing with abrasive iron and ash and also in large pieces tends to have unsightly fossils in lighter grey. Slate never was used much for hearths in the UK until slate from Italy, a very consistently blacker material, became widely imported in the 1980s.

Unglazed (quarry) tiles were used for hearths in only the most basic of labourers accommodation for the iron and steel of firetools etc. being softer than the tile surface became embedded in the tiles quickly making them look dirty and unsightly.

Glazed tiles however offered and easy to clean surface and started to become widely used for hearths in the 1870. There is a class of tiles made especially for hearths, glazed encaustics, few of which existed prior to 1870. Encaustic tiles were of course used for floors and the most durable decorated tiles available, in their natural state the firetools etc. metal would quickly despoil them but with glazed surfaces they could be easily kept clean.

It was 1877 when tiles became widely fitted in to stove grates as they were known in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, what we now call (cast iron/fireplace) inserts. To compliment them tiles became the standard material used for hearths and from thence came the myriad of different hearths since installed.

Many hearths were simply plain 6' x 6" tiles, by far the cheapest option although not well suited aesthetically for an area where just fourteen or sixteen are fully seen the scale of the individual piece is rather large. Brick pattern hearths are much better on such a scale, 6" x 3", 6" x 2" and 4" x 2" the most often seen, smaller than that and it gets too fussy for the area. 6" x 6" tiles were made in brick pattern to keep the cost down and relieve the austere look of simply plain but a clear compromise never looking close to as good as a laid brick pattern in individual tiles. Transfer printed tiles to match those in the fireplace was another option but I guess only 2% - 3% of fireplaces had them, embossed tiles were less often used as the relief was subject to wear. I am sure at least 90% of hearths were plain or brick patterned.

Notes about mantelpieces of the period.

At least 90% of mantelpieces were an imitation of something more expensive usually being marble, oak or mahogany. Slate and pine mantelpieces were decorated as marble and fine wood, pine often coated in a red-brown varnish to resemble mahogany. Slate usually had a more durable enamel finish which was kiln fired whether marble effect or oak grain. Slate sometimes had painted panels, landscapes and foliate, to imitate porcelain plaques found embedded in fine marble mantelpieces. There were combinations of materials, glazed ceramic buttons, highlights in genuine marble made from offcuts and scraps from real marble mantelpieces etc.

Cast iron mantelpieces were also decorated as marble, oak or mahogany, as with slate the finish may be a fired enamel rather than merely a paint. Cast iron mantels were never black, with one exception, and never polished. Iron does not polish well, steel polishes well, polishing iron removes the detail of decoration and reveals the blow holes in flat material.

There simply was no other suitable material for reproducing carved mantelpieces, None of the resins or fibreglass we have today, even today's plaster is far superior to that available in the late 19th century when the few plaster mantelpieces that were made tended to have marble shelves. There are a few ceramic mantelpieces, terracotta, faience even porcelain but either for the most part edwardian and very expensive compared to iron.

The exception for black iron was Berlin Black Enamel, this was a high gloss fired glass based finish, somewhat similar to the effect we may see on a high class black painted automobile. It then was in imitation of Belgian Black Marble, a truly wondrous material when highly polished and free of fossils.

Cast iron mantelpieces were offered for sale by manufacturers and wholesalers with wooden shelves. They don't come along very often but somehow even most of the trade assumes they are replacements for broken iron shelves when clearly by the way they are fitted they had to be there before the mantelpiece was installed. It is very difficult to cast a large piece of flat iron, say six feet by one foot, without it warping so a wooden shelf was perfect, bearing in mind that it was all to be painted anyway.

The main reason why they aren't often seen is no doubt because the wooden shelf was a more expensive option, I can understand why many would find that difficult to believe but the wooden shelves were very good. Those I have seen have been substantial, an inch an a half thick, with a groove cut in to fit the profile of the iron body of the mantel. The wood has been top quality, a knot-free spruce, piranha pine or pitch pine, and in every case precisely flat after a century or so of heat, damp, storm and drought. So yes I could see why that wooden shelf would be more expensive than iron.

As there are fringe products with mixed materials, such as mahogany with ormolu mounts, inlaid porcelain, painted carvings so reproductions were made of all of them, brass beading may be applied or iron beading may be painted. Whatever can be imagined, with millions of houses with mostly half a dozen fireplaces in each at least two being considered showpieces, it is likely someone did it somewhere.

Important notes about installing tiled hearths.

In order to ensure hearths were level, there being a number of tiles often different sizes and inevitably different thicknesses whether according to the sizes or due to variations in manufacture, they were slabbed. Tiles would be laid face down on to a flat surface in the desired arrangement and cement of some description, usually with steel, slate or ceramic reinforcement and aggregate, poured on to the back until the thickness was typically close to two inches. The hearth could then be installed in one piece in the knowledge that there were no edges sticking up waiting to get chipped off by the first poker to come along.

Hearths could be slabbed at the tileworks, by the wholesaler or by the builder on site but the more complex hearths were almost inevitably slabbed, getting 50 - 100 tiles precisely level is no small task otherwise. Tiles were close butted, no spacing for grout, obviously really when in many designs the pattern runs from one tile to the next. If grout was used it would be portland cement a dull grey that disappears in to insignificance however in use any gap between tiles would quickly accumulate ash and dust.

It is a simple task to slab a hearth, often much easier than laying large quantities of small tiles, it requires just a flat board and a few strips of timber to make the frame. If of sufficient import it is recommended that the customer or designer specify where each tile should be by laying them out and attaching a numbered label to each, even which way up arrows may help. Tiles with scratches may be required to be tucked out of the way, or alternatively be set where the damage would more reflect a century of use. The glaze pools to an edge or corner on most plain tiles, this feature may be utilised in the design.

No grout is good but perhaps some grout is better, if so use a coloured grout, stain the grout to approximately match the colour of the tiles or use a dull mid tone grey like portland grey. DO NOT USE WHITE GROUT, IT LOOKS AWFUL. Unfortunately many builders and even worse fireplace companies have never heard of grout that is not white and never heard of close-butted tiles and completely ruin otherwise acceptable jobs by turning the hearth in to something that resembles negative graph paper.

But not every victorian fireplace was installed by a craftsman, most were installed by jobbing builders, some by apprentices on their first jobs, I've seen many upside-down tiles in century old installations, some unnoticed by the present occupiers!

Surround.

You may notice I haven't used the word in this essay, there is one fireplace component that may be called a surround, it's not common in period fireplaces but over the years I have heard just about everything else called it. Mantelpieces or mantels are not surrounds, fenders are not surrounds, kerbs are not surrounds, insets or inserts, originally known as stove grates, are not surrounds. Unfortunately the fireplace industry was overwhelmed by people who hadn't a clue what they were doing in the 1980s and those established companies who did know got drowned out. Vendors of reproductions used the wrong words, media used the wrong words and soon everyone except the real experts called things by the wrong and at times confusing names.

Likewise people believed hearths should be massive because that's what they were told and that's what they were sold despite almost everyone having seen a few original fireplaces in original settings such as heritage buildings and friends and family houses yet somehow what they have seen and know to be true gets forgotten rather similar to the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

Below are drawings of tiled surrounds from circa 1910 catalogues, that is a surround it was the standard name, now you can boast that you know what a surround is, in connection with fireplaces. Tiled surrounds may have various shaped openings, iron or brass frames ("interiors"), built in hobs etc., there was a wide variety of them. There were however but few in edwardian times, catalogues of the time often show none, one or two at most, whereas there are dozens of hearths, slabbed cheeks, panels for tiled grates etc.