ANTIQUE PAIR OF FRENCH HAND FIRE SCREENS (ECRANS A MAIN)
Consulat / Early Empire Period, First Half of the 19th Century, c.1800–1840
A rare matched pair of French hand fire screens (écrans à main) from the first half of the nineteenth century. These refined objects were held before the face to shield the complexion from the heat of an open hearth fire — an essential drawing-room accessory of the Consulat and early Empire periods. Surviving as a matched pair in identical colourway and decoration, they present an unusually complete example of this now-scarce domestic form.
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ITEM DETAILS
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Type: Pair of hand fire screens (écrans à main)
Period: First half of the 19th century, French, c.1800–1840
Construction: Double-sided copperplate engraved paper (taille douce) over card, edge-bound in mauve/purple paper border
Decoration, principal face: Sage green printed ground with crosshatch and laurel-leaf border; shield-form field with central cartouche framed by swagged rose garlands. Each screen bears a hand-coloured oval reserve with a pastoral vignette in the manner of Francois Boucher — one depicting a young woman with a birdcage, the other a young woman with a lamb
Decoration, reverse: Bold trophy and pastoral still-life compositions
Handle: Turned walnut, baluster-form grip with turned finial; brass collar fitting at the join
Silhouette: Shield form with indented top edge (contour chantourn)
Total height including handle: approx. 14.5 in / 37 cm
Screen leaf: approx. 10 x 7 in / 25 x 18 cm
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CONDITION
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Sold as antiques in honest aged condition throughout. Age foxing, surface soiling, and minor abrasion to the paper consistent with approximately 180–220 years of age. Some losses and scuffing to the green-printed surface at edges and corners. Mauve border edging shows wear and partial detachment in places. Small loss at the upper corner of one screen. Handles in sound condition with good patina and minor surface marks. Both screens remain structurally complete and firm on their handles. Obvious wear, genuine charm.
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SUITABLE FOR
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Collectors of French decorative arts and printed paper ephemera. Interior designers seeking authentic period fireplace accessories. Antique chimneypiece and hearth displays. Boucher-style pastoral print collectors. Museum-quality display pairs.
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SHIPPING
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Fragile antiques packed with care in a rigid box with archival tissue.
Please message with any questions before purchasing.
ANTIQUE PAIR OF FRENCH HAND FIRE SCREENS (ECRANS A MAIN)
Consulat / Early Empire Period, First Half of the 19th Century, c.1800–1840
A rare matched pair of French hand fire screens (écrans à main) from the first half of the nineteenth century. These refined objects were held before the face to shield the complexion from the heat of an open hearth fire — an essential drawing-room accessory of the Consulat and early Empire periods. Surviving as a matched pair in identical colourway and decoration, they present an unusually complete example of this now-scarce domestic form.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ITEM DETAILS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Type: Pair of hand fire screens (écrans à main)
Period: First half of the 19th century, French, c.1800–1840
Construction: Double-sided copperplate engraved paper (taille douce) over card, edge-bound in mauve/purple paper border
Decoration, principal face: Sage green printed ground with crosshatch and laurel-leaf border; shield-form field with central cartouche framed by swagged rose garlands. Each screen bears a hand-coloured oval reserve with a pastoral vignette in the manner of Francois Boucher — one depicting a young woman with a birdcage, the other a young woman with a lamb
Decoration, reverse: Bold trophy and pastoral still-life compositions
Handle: Turned walnut, baluster-form grip with turned finial; brass collar fitting at the join
Silhouette: Shield form with indented top edge (contour chantourn)
Total height including handle: approx. 14.5 in / 37 cm
Screen leaf: approx. 10 x 7 in / 25 x 18 cm
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CONDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sold as antiques in honest aged condition throughout. Age foxing, surface soiling, and minor abrasion to the paper consistent with approximately 180–220 years of age. Some losses and scuffing to the green-printed surface at edges and corners. Mauve border edging shows wear and partial detachment in places. Small loss at the upper corner of one screen. Handles in sound condition with good patina and minor surface marks. Both screens remain structurally complete and firm on their handles. Obvious wear, genuine charm.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SUITABLE FOR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Collectors of French decorative arts and printed paper ephemera. Interior designers seeking authentic period fireplace accessories. Antique chimneypiece and hearth displays. Boucher-style pastoral print collectors. Museum-quality display pairs.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SHIPPING
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fragile antiques packed with care in a rigid box with archival tissue.
Please message with any questions before purchasing.
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