ANTIQUE FRENCH HAND FIRE SCREEN (ECRAN A MAIN)
Restoration / Early Romantic Period, c.1820–1840
Hand-Coloured Lithograph Portrait of a Young Woman in Late 18th-Century Court Dress
A finely decorated French hand fire screen (écran à main) of the Restoration or early Romantic period, centred on a hand-coloured lithograph portrait of a young woman in late 18th-century French court dress — powdered wig with flower and ribbon trim, black velvet choker, off-shoulder white fichu, small bouquet at the bodice. The lithograph has been selectively enhanced with hand-applied colour touches in gouache or watercolour, giving the portrait warmth and finish well above a plain printed sheet. The costume and composition are closely related to known portrait conventions of the Louis XVI period, though the subject has not been positively identified.
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ITEM DETAILS
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Type: Single hand fire screen (ecran a main)
Period: Restoration / early Romantic, c.1820–1840, French
Subject: Bust-length portrait of an unidentified young woman in late 18th-century French court dress; costume corresponds to known iconographic conventions of French royal portraiture of the 1780s
Medium: Lithograph with selective hand-applied colour touches in gouache or watercolour
Silhouette: Scalloped / lobate outline with gilt outer edge
Construction: Moulded and embossed card leaf; warm buff / tan ground; deeply embossed concentric oval surround
Reverse: Brown embossed vermicular paper; gilt outer edge; two diagonal creases across upper portion
Handle: Turned gilded wood; reeded lower grip, baluster collars, finial; slight movement between leaf and handle noted
Screen leaf: approx. 10 x 8 in / 25.5 x 20 cm
Total height including handle: approx. 18 in / 45.5 cm
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CONDITION
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Portrait in good condition with no visible tears; overall toning and light foxing consistent with age. Card surround shows surface soiling and minor abrasion. Reverse shows two diagonal creases across the upper portion. Gilt handle retains most of its gilding with minor wear. Slight movement between leaf and handle — structurally sound but not rigid. Sold as an antique in honest aged condition.
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SUITABLE FOR
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Collectors of French decorative arts and printed ephemera. Portrait and lithograph collectors. Interior designers seeking exceptional period fireplace pieces. Collectors of French royal and Ancien Regime iconography. Displayed upright or framed behind glass.
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SHIPPING
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Fragile antique packed with great care in a rigid box with archival tissue. Please message with any questions before purchasing.
ANTIQUE FRENCH HAND FIRE SCREEN (ECRAN A MAIN)
Restoration / Early Romantic Period, c.1820–1840
Hand-Coloured Lithograph Portrait of a Young Woman in Late 18th-Century Court Dress
A finely decorated French hand fire screen (écran à main) of the Restoration or early Romantic period, centred on a hand-coloured lithograph portrait of a young woman in late 18th-century French court dress — powdered wig with flower and ribbon trim, black velvet choker, off-shoulder white fichu, small bouquet at the bodice. The lithograph has been selectively enhanced with hand-applied colour touches in gouache or watercolour, giving the portrait warmth and finish well above a plain printed sheet. The costume and composition are closely related to known portrait conventions of the Louis XVI period, though the subject has not been positively identified.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ITEM DETAILS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Type: Single hand fire screen (ecran a main)
Period: Restoration / early Romantic, c.1820–1840, French
Subject: Bust-length portrait of an unidentified young woman in late 18th-century French court dress; costume corresponds to known iconographic conventions of French royal portraiture of the 1780s
Medium: Lithograph with selective hand-applied colour touches in gouache or watercolour
Silhouette: Scalloped / lobate outline with gilt outer edge
Construction: Moulded and embossed card leaf; warm buff / tan ground; deeply embossed concentric oval surround
Reverse: Brown embossed vermicular paper; gilt outer edge; two diagonal creases across upper portion
Handle: Turned gilded wood; reeded lower grip, baluster collars, finial; slight movement between leaf and handle noted
Screen leaf: approx. 10 x 8 in / 25.5 x 20 cm
Total height including handle: approx. 18 in / 45.5 cm
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CONDITION
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Portrait in good condition with no visible tears; overall toning and light foxing consistent with age. Card surround shows surface soiling and minor abrasion. Reverse shows two diagonal creases across the upper portion. Gilt handle retains most of its gilding with minor wear. Slight movement between leaf and handle — structurally sound but not rigid. Sold as an antique in honest aged condition.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SUITABLE FOR
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Collectors of French decorative arts and printed ephemera. Portrait and lithograph collectors. Interior designers seeking exceptional period fireplace pieces. Collectors of French royal and Ancien Regime iconography. Displayed upright or framed behind glass.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SHIPPING
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fragile antique packed with great care in a rigid box with archival tissue. Please message with any questions before purchasing.
