Neoclassical Style Three-Panel Steel Mesh Fireplace Screen with Brass Laurel Wreath. France. Circa 1940.

This neoclassical style three-panel fireplace screen presents an elegant and refined composition typical of the finest French decorative metalwork of the 1930s–1940s. The screen comprises three hinged panels — a wide central panel flanked by two narrower side wings — each filled with a fine black steel wire mesh woven in a diamond lattice pattern that filters the firelight with characteristic warmth. The panels are framed in polished steel and brass uprights, each post capped by a small brass finial of urn form, which introduces a refined neoclassical note consistent with the decorative vocabulary of the period.

The central panel is distinguished by an applied brass laurel wreath — the most enduring motif of neoclassical decoration, evoking classical victory, honour and the eternal. Cast and finished in polished brass, it stands in warm golden relief against the dark mesh ground, drawing the eye to the centre of the composition with quiet authority.

Dating to circa 1940, this screen belongs to the tradition of high-quality French fireplace accessories that drew on the neoclassical vocabulary established by the Empire and Restauration periods and sustained through the interwar decades. The combination of fine black wire mesh, polished brass ornament and steel framing is characteristic of the best Parisian ateliers of the period, whose productions were equally at home in the formal salons of the bourgeoisie and in the grand rooms of country houses.