Dr. C Dresser & Barnard, Bishop & Barnard. A rare Aesthetic Movement fireplace.

A rare Aesthetic Movement walnut fire surround, inset with four Linthorpe pottery circular floral plaques. Although I have not removed the back to inspect the plaques, identical plaques are known with the Dr. C Dresser facsimile signature. I have added an example showing this to the listing.

There is no doubt that this Barnard, Bishop and Barnard fire surround was specifically designed to house the Linthorpe circular plaques. In the B, B, & B period catalogues there is an identical fire surround albeit with square apertures which were designed to take large tiles, but no illustration of a surround with circular plaques, and to my knowledge no other examples of this fire surround are known to have come onto the market place. I find it hard to consider this was a Dresser and B, B & B collaboration and I wouldn’t try to stretch to a Jeckyll involvement either, but I might suggest it may have been commissioned by an architect, as was the norm in that period of architecture and interiors.

Internal measurements of the opening are: H 38.25 inches W37 inches