Three-Panel Neoclassical Brass and Wire Mesh Folding Fireplace Screen with Rope-Twist Frame. France. Circa 1970.

This elegant three-panel folding fireplace screen is distinguished by the rope-twist profiles of its brass upright stiles, a decorative detail that adds texture and visual interest to the neoclassical framework. The vertical members at the corners and between the panels are formed with a continuous helical twist that plays with light across the surface, animating the screen’s profile from front and side angles alike. Small urn-form finials punctuate the upper corners of the central panel, and the frame profiles show a slight chamfer at the upper corners that adds a note of formal sophistication to the composition.

The wire mesh infill, in a fine diagonal weave, provides effective spark protection while ensuring the warmth of the fire radiates freely into the room. The brass framing — combining twisted sections with straight base and top rails — achieves a pleasing balance between decorative detail and structural clarity. The three panels fold on hinges, the two wings turning forward to create a stable, angled enclosure around the hearth opening.

The screen is in good condition, the brass framing retaining its warm patinated finish and the wire mesh intact throughout. The twist details are clean and undamaged, and the hinges function properly. A compact and well-proportioned screen suited to a standard domestic fireplace opening, combining decorative quality with functional efficiency.

Rope-twist or cable-twist brass framing has been a recurring decorative element in French furniture and metalwork since the Directoire and Empire periods, when the motif carried neoclassical associations with Roman fasces and twisted column forms. Its use on fireplace accessories in the twentieth century represents a continuation of this decorative tradition, deployed here to enliven a form whose clean proportions and quality of detail make it a characterful and practical example of the type.