Three-Panel Clear Glass Folding Fireplace Screen with Oval Brass Hinge Plates. France. Circa 1970.

This fireplace screen represents one of the most radical simplifications of the genre: the elimination of all conventional framing in favour of glass alone, the panels connected by nothing more than a pair of elegantly proportioned oval brass hinge plates whose polished surfaces gleam against the transparency of the glass they join. The result is an object of extraordinary lightness and clarity, one that barely interrupts the visual field of the fireplace even as it fulfils its protective function with complete competence.

The three-panel folding format is a practical and established convention, but here it is employed without a single concession to ornament beyond the intrinsic beauty of the materials. The clear glass panels, polished at their edges, allow the fire behind to be seen in its entirety — its light, colour, and movement passing through the screen with only the slightest refraction — while the brass plates at the hinges provide precisely the note of warmth and material contrast that prevents the composition from tipping into cold anonymity.

The large oval hinge plates, each centred with a circular disc, are themselves objects of considered design: their proportions generous enough to read as deliberate sculptural accents rather than mere functional fastenings. This is a characteristic approach of French decorative craftsmen of the 1970s, for whom even the most ostensibly utilitarian element of an object merited aesthetic attention.

In excellent condition and fully functional, this screen would be ideal for a fireplace surround whose architectural character one wishes to preserve uninterrupted, whether of the grand classical tradition or the spare geometry of a contemporary interior.