Willem Schermerhorn Antieke schouwen

Vision, craftsmanship, and the perfect match.

Working with rare and precious materials takes vision, patience, and craftsmanship.
The origin: Parts of a unique early 18th-century Dutch fireplace in exceptionally rare Portoro marble were discovered in Friesland.
The challenge: The pieces were acquired before a buyer was found. Finding authentic marble for the missing elements took a long and careful search.
The result: With expert restoration and great patience, the pieces were reunited into one majestic fireplace — eventually finding its perfect home in The Hague.

It’s always a pleasure to look back on special projects!

A commission from ARTIS (Amsterdam Zoo): more than a decade ago, we had the opportunity to supply two fireplaces for the restoration of the North Pavilion (1868). With a building like this, preserving its historic atmosphere and appearance is, of course, paramount.

The Blue Star Room: For this atmospheric event space, we chose a presumed 19th-century plaster fireplace with a top layer of scagliola (imitation marble). The warm yellow and grey tones in the material beautifully complement the soft pale yellow and blue stars on the wallpaper. A charming detail: the lion’s paws at the transition from the jambs to the plinth.

Some fireplaces tell a story not only through their design, but also through the journey they have made.

This wooden Louis XIV mantelpiece, executed in an early eighteenth-century style inspired by the designs of Daniel Marot, is a wonderful example.

The earliest known location of the mantelpiece is the villa at Zuiderstraat 3 in Leeuwarden. At the time, the building served as a charitable foundation providing accommodation for elderly single women in need. It is, however, clear that this was not the mantelpiece's original setting. Historic photographs show that the mantelpiece was actually too low for the room: an additional upper section was therefore added above the cornice to make it fit the space. The canvas painting was not originally made for this chimney breast either, but was at some point cut down to fit within the panel.

In 1970, the villa was demolished to make way for the expansion of the adjacent bank building. Around 1981, the mantelpiece found a new home in the residence in Delden of the then Queen's Commissioner of Friesland, Mr Rijpstra (1919–2011), and his wife, who had previously served on the board of the Leeuwarden foundation.

Following the couple's passing, the mantelpiece eventually reached our gallery in Haarlem through the art trade.

It remains fascinating how a wandering object such as this mantelpiece bears the traces of the people, buildings, and events of which it has formed a part over the centuries.

From the Amsterdam canals to Paris—and finally back home.

Sometimes an antique masterpiece has an extraordinary journey.

We recently acquired this Dutch Louis XV fireplace mantel, carved from exquisite Rouge Royal marble and dating from the first half of the 18th century, from an antique dealer in Paris.

Its characteristic proportions, refined mouldings, and the way the frieze meets the jambs immediately revealed its Dutch origin. But the real story only came to light later.

While researching in the Amsterdam City Archives, we discovered a photograph from 1929 showing this exact mantel in its original setting at Herengracht 246. The distinctive veining of the Rouge Royal marble leaves no doubt—it is unquestionably the very same piece.

The photograph was most likely taken shortly before the canal house was converted into offices and the mantel made its way to France. Nearly a century later, this remarkable piece of Dutch heritage has finally returned home.

Some discoveries are simply too extraordinary not to share.

We recently had the privilege of acquiring two exceptional Louis XVI fireplaces from a château in France's Loire Valley that was recently demolished.

Carved from almost perfectly pure white marble, both fireplaces stand out for the remarkable refinement of their craftsmanship. Take the pearl moulding alone: each pearl has been sculpted into an almost perfectly spherical form, projecting completely free from the frieze. Even the connecting string has been undercut all the way around, leaving the space behind entirely open. This subtle sense of depth is a testament to an extraordinary level of skill and precision—craftsmanship that is rarely encountered today.

These fireplaces have now been given the opportunity for a new life. Preserving exceptional historic architectural elements and finding them a fitting new home is at the heart of what we do.