Modernist Folding Glass Fireplace Screen with Ornate Bronze Hinge Medallions. France. Circa 1970.

This unusual and elegant fireplace screen is formed by two hinged panels of clear glass, each panel distinguished by a gently curved upper profile that departs from the purely rectilinear to introduce a note of organic softness. The visual character of the piece, however, is dominated by the large ornate bronze hinge medallions connecting the glass panels — richly worked, scroll-decorated cast bronze elements that stand in deliberate and productive tension with the plain transparency of the glass. The combination of ancient decorative motif and modern industrial material is characteristic of a certain strain of French design in the 1970s that sought to embed contemporary forms within a vocabulary of historical richness.

The bronze hinge medallions are the focal point of the composition: elaborate elements with foliate or scroll patterning, their warm oxidised surface contrasting dramatically with the cool green-tinted edges of the clear glass panels. The glass itself is of good quality, the panels even and well-cut, the curved upper edges cleanly finished. The screen opens and closes on the hinges with a gentle resistance appropriate to its weight and scale.

The screen is in very good overall condition, the glass panels free of chips, cracks, or significant scratching. The bronze hinges retain their original patinated finish and are fully functional. The combination presents as an intact and coherent ensemble, at once a decorative object and a practical fireplace screen.

Glass fireplace screens with ornamental metal hardware occupy an interesting niche within French decorative arts of the late twentieth century, combining the practical advantages of transparent glass screening with a desire for decorative richness that the purely minimal glass-and-chrome approach could not entirely satisfy. This example, with its ornate bronze medallion hinges and shaped glass panels, is among the more sophisticated expressions of that aesthetic.