While the 1897 NYT article referenced in the auction listing indicates that, by that date, the mantel was in a room utilized as a "reading room", some quick research on my part shows that, according to an article published in 1889 in the magazine Outing, an Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Recreation, the room was initially used as a dining space:
Stepping again into the caf? you see on one side a bright and cosy little bar... Directly opposite to this is the fireplace, with a dark wood mantel set with tiles, and carved in quaint characters, the legend "Well Befall, Hearth and Hall."
with a similar description appearing in the 1894 NYT article:
The hall leads to the octagon-shaped caf?... On one side of this room is the bar; on the other a fireplace, over which is carved the inscription: "Well befall hearth and hall."
In her 1880s decorating advice manual How to Furnish a Home, Ella Church Rodman opined in the chapter entitled "The Dining Room":
A legend across the front, in old English lettering, is appropriate for a dining-room mantel... "Well befall hearth and hall," the word "Salve," or Welcome, and such quotations from Shakespeare as [will remind one] of the more sacred "Give us this day our daily bread" are all suitable inscriptions..."
In my opinion, not just a beautiful object, but one that serves as fascinating and tangible evidence that what the late-19th century taste makers were preaching was actually put into practice, even by those at the upper end of the economic scale.