This weekend, in the course of removing the jazzy white 50s panelling from our living room, my husband and I got ambitious and also pulled the colonial mantle away from the fireplace (we can't completely remove it until my electrician father-in-law disconnects the wiring to the outlet on top of the mantle shelf). I had surmised that this mantle was not original, partly because of its colonial style in a 1920s Craftsman bungalow (although I know colonial revival became popular later in the 20s), and I think I am correct. It is clearly a prefab piece, given the label still attached to it with directions for installing it (prefabs wouldn't have been common in the 20s, right?), and there is a clear outline of another, simpler-looking mantle behind there, and what must be the original wallpaper (it's the first layer on raw plaster) is visible where the colonial mantle was slightly wider and taller than the original. A horse-hair wallpaper brush was even left in a niche in the wall behind the colonial mantle. <br> <br>Here's what puzzles me: a) the niche--why would what looks like an arched indentation have been dug out of the plaster in the first place? The outline of the original mantle seems to be all square angles; and b)the brickwork of the fireplace is very raw on the edges, although it doesn't appear that any bricks were removed to make the colonial mantle fit; does this mean that original mantle had a wood enclosure of some kind, or would something else have been the norm? <br> <br>I would greatly appreciate any clues to what the likely profile might have been; the house was built in 1924. <br> <br>Thanks in advance! <br> <br>jlf <br> <br>

I think you are right on with the wood covering up the rough edges...that is what was done in our 1906 mantles. I wish I could see a picture of the nitche... perhaps there was some sort of decorateve element? I am not visualizing this well at all. <br> <br>

I will post a pic of it once we get the mantle all the way off (we have to wait for my father-in-law to remove the wiring--we're too chicken to try!)--right now, I can't get back there close enough to take one. <br> <br>Thanks! <br>