Three-Panel Gilt Brass and Wire Mesh Folding Fireplace Screen with Rococo Scroll Crest Rail and Ball Feet. France. Circa 1970.

This three-panel folding fireplace screen stands apart from the plainer neoclassical examples of its period by virtue of its richly decorated gilt brass frame. The defining element is the crest rail: an elaborate band of Rococo scrollwork running the full width of the screen along its upper edge, composed of interlacing C-scrolls and foliate ornament in the Louis XV manner. This cast and chased ornament, gilded to a warm golden tone, gives the screen an emphatic decorative character that would have been at home in the most elaborately appointed French interiors of the 1960s and 1970s, when a renewed taste for the Rococo and Second Empire styles influenced both period dealers and contemporary decorators.

The four small brass ball feet that raise the frame slightly from the hearth floor are a further period detail, characteristic of the Louis XV and Louis XVI vocabulary and adding a small but visually satisfying note of refinement to the base of the composition. Together with the ornate crest rail, they frame the wire mesh panels in a decorative surround that asserts the screen as a furnishing object of significance, not merely a functional barrier. The three hinged panels, each filled with fine dark wire mesh of closely woven diamonds, perform their protective function without competing with the decorative programme of the frame.

The overall proportions — 48.5 centimetres wide by 55 centimetres tall — are well judged for a domestic fireplace of moderate dimensions. The hinged construction allows the screen to be angled to suit different fireplace configurations, and the combination of decorative brass crest with dark mesh is a classic pairing that has maintained its appeal across successive changes in interior fashion. The gilded brass reads richly under firelight, the scrolling ornament catching the reflected glow of the fire beneath it.

In very good condition, retaining its original gilded brass frame and wire mesh, with natural patina consistent with age. A characterful and accomplished screen that brings genuine decorative ambition to the hearth, well suited to a Louis XV or Louis XVI interior or to any setting that welcomes a confident ornamental accent.