Some of these people feature in the Bethlem Gallery's new exhibition, Where is the Work in the Work of Art? Artists like Matthew, who made himself a mantelpiece out of bedsheets and cardboard to try and wrest some sense of home out of his hospital environment.
A recent one came in the form of an impeccably bourgeois wedding invitation of the kind that no doubt clutter up the mantelpieces of apartments in New York.
The Brits have decorated the mantelpieces of music royalty since 1977, but organisers are concerned that the show has become too much of an exercise in industry back-slapping, with music executives clustered at tables close to the stage, holding drink-fuelled conversations during performances.
Maybe if he'd been content to keep running variations on A Fistful of Dollars, or his agonisingly beautiful score for Once Upon a Time in the West, there would now be a row of Oscars on his mantelpiece instead of the tasteful array of blue-and-white ceramic vessels.
The tradition soon became established of incorporating a mirror into the space over the mantelpiece: many of the early versions of these mirrors, usually known as overmantels, were enclosed in glass frames.
