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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Coal Burning Fireplace Cover

This is the cast iron surround and summer cover that came with our home.  It is two pieces (the surround and the summer cover which lifts up and also comes off) and likely original to the house. The summer cover was used when the fireplace was not in use.  According to our home inspector and antique resources on the web, the removable summer cover is often missing. Each surround had its own cover made to fit and is not a standard size and are now nearly impossible to find or replace (except for replicas). Th cover is often missing because during WWII the government collected scrap metal for the war effort, and the covers were commonly donated to the cause.  Luckily our original home owner wasn't feeling very patriotic.

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