Companion Sets
Companion Sets are a most distinctive feature of the traditional English open fireplace. In Victorian times especially, with the widespread use of coal fires, companion sets were a practical and integral part of typical English hearth furniture, as well as providing a decorative element into the whole fireside arrangement.
Traditional companion set styles were diverse and in a variety of metal finishes - most popular were iron, brass and antique brass, but pewter was quite common, and in more modern times chrome sets have been favoured for their more contemporary feel.
Traditionally, companion set arrangements included a shovel, brush, poker and coal tongs, as most of our range typically still do. Coal fires tended to produce large quanities of ash as well as coals that often fell onto the hearth, where coal tongs, brush and shovel came into their own in clearing up such spillages.
Tongs were used to pick up the still hot and glowing coals to replace them on the fire, and, as fires gradually collapsed and bedded down, a poker was essential to liven up dying embers to extract the last possible degree of heat from the fuel bed.
Nowadays with the more popular inset gas and electric fires, companion sets play a much less functional and a more decorative role, and are often favoured simply as a link with tradition and for their intrinsic visual attractiveness. Although all of our models are still fully functional and form part of essential equipment for those opting for solid fuel arrangements in their fireplaces.
