PLEASE BE ADVISED: Because Ebay has instituted a policy of making its own "offered reduced sales prices, deciding what it believes is reasonable on no basis whatsoever, and without the Seller’s advanced notice, I have deleted the listing option “Offers Accepted.” HOWEVER, I am generally willing to consider offers in some instances and it is always worth inquiring through messaging.


HISTORIC 1840’s SOLID IRON DECORATIVE HEARTH 

DESIGNED TO HOLD FIRST SELF-IGNITING MATCHES 

 In 40 years both as a dealer and collector this is one of

a handful (each different) I have ever seen. AND, other experienced antique dealers

 generally will have no idea what this is. They may suggest it is an “architect’s 

or salesman’s model” or was part of a hardware store display selling hearths for the home…

(Currently there are a couple being offered on Ebay for a lot less--and well, you be the judge.)


According to British Museum archives, in 1826, John Walker, 

a chemist in England, discovered through lucky accident that 

a stick coated with chemicals burst into flame when scraped 

across his hearth at home. He went on to invent the first friction match.

 Friction matches gave people the unprecedented ability to light fires quickly and efficiently, 

changing domestic arrangements and reducing the hours spent trying to light fires

 using more primitive means. Advances in matches continued over the 1830s and into the 1840s.


In a fashionable American Victorian home, most likely a mansion, 

this magnificent rendition of a large, ornate hearth would have adorned the wall

 next to the very hearth it was meant to service--featuring long phosphorus-tipped matches, 

the latest invention in fire-making for igniting the flames of  logs and embers. 


Description: The massive iron construction is finely detailed with twin goddesses of

 prosperity to either side, draped in symbolic fruits of agricultural produce. Regal guardians 

of the home, two posed lions, are surmounted over the mantel. The interior of the fireplace

 has a decorative solar disc replicating a fire screen, and up front is the grill work for fire wood, 

coals--or in this miniature: what would have been circa 1840 the fairly recent 

invention of long, wooden self-striking matches.


(Note: I am including the pictured green-tipped matches, but they shall require the

 usual aid of a more modern matchbox for striking.)


Measurement: 12 inches tall by 12 inches wide. Haven’t weighed it. (4 or 5 pounds?)

Deep brown surface. Nice oxidized patina. Spectacular display piece.


NOTE: This is not a “match safe,” though that’s the label people attach to any 

device used for holding matches. A match safe was a small, mid- to late 1800’s 

pocket-size case to prevent unintentional ignition of matches. Later the term was

 applied to anything that held matches--mostly decorative wall boxes kept near 

gas stoves and the like. BUT, they were not like this item--not nearly as early, 

and not similar.

So, it’s a pretty scarce and historic piece. My description is 100% guaranteed.