mantel-piece

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See also: mantelpiece

English

Noun

mantel-piece (plural mantel-pieces)

  1. Archaic form of mantelpiece.
    • 1831, L E L[andon], chapter VII, in Romance and Reality. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, page 52:
      On the mantel-piece two alabaster figures supported each a little lamp, whose flame was tinted by the stained flowers; []
    • 1842, Thomson, chapter XII, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume I, London: Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, pages 242–243:
      It was Friday—the next day was Saturday—the third—he read it on the japanned card-rack, which was nailed near his mantel-piece—was Sunday—he knew not how he should face his parishioners.
    • 1897, Edith Wharton, Ogden Codman Jr., “Fireplaces”, in The Decoration of Houses, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 79:
      [] while the suites of small rooms which had come into favor under the Regent led to a reduction in the size of mantel-pieces, and to the use of less massive and perhaps less architectural ornament. In the eighteenth century, mantel-pieces in Italy and France were almost always composed of a marble or stone architrave surmounted by a shelf of the same material, while the over- mantel consisted of a mirror, framed in mouldings varying in design from the simplest style to the most ornate.