Jarek Emerges Triumphant

Back in November LASSCO St. Michael's had to move quickly to save two fireplaces from a vulnerable building site in Surrey. Once back to the church the chimneypieces disappear into the Vestry where Jarek Juchniewicz, the LASSCO marble mason works his magic. We haven't seen much of Jarek since these two arrived. We did see him at the Christmas party looking a bit pale - but now he has completed his restoration and built the two chimneypieces in the shop we can see what he has been up to.

English marble chimneypieces from the late Georgian era tend to be made from a multitude of component parts. In Edwardian times these chimneypieces were back in fashion and there was, for a period, an output of very fine examples emulating their Georgian forebears. Whether, Georgian or Edwardian, you never quite know how they are going to come out of the wall - some come out cleanly with the parts of each jamb and the frieze staying firmly together. Others are less easy - probably when they have been assembled on site. These Surrey examples, no longer required in the re-formatting of a grand country house there, came out piece by piece and when laid out, they filled the floor area of the large rooms.

This means a lot of work for our Polish mason. Each piece is cleaned and has a poultice applied for a couple of days before further bleaching polishing and repair as necessary. Much of the jasper inlay needed to be re-laid as jasper is a very soft material. Then the three dimensional jigsaw begins.

The results of Jarek's work for the last few weeks can be seen on display at LASSCO St. Michael's (pictured right) alongside previous examples of his craftmanship. He has a few tricks up his sleeve to get the results ... whether it is using tea or lemon juice or specialist compounds to return these marble monsters to their former glory.

His next one to restore is a white marble chimneypiece from the house of Frank Lampard - the Chelsea footballer!

Go to www.lassco.co.uk and pay a visit to LASSCO St. Michael's to browse through all of the fireplaces - marble, stone and wood - where they are pictured, measured, described and priced.