Three-Panel Modernist Brass and Wire Mesh Folding Fireplace Screen with Rounded Frame Profiles. France. Circa 1970.

This three-panel folding fireplace screen occupies a particularly useful position in the range of French brass and mesh screens produced during the 1970s: at 52 centimetres wide and 49 centimetres tall, it is compact enough for the smaller and medium-sized fireplaces found in French apartments and domestic reception rooms, yet it retains the polished brass frame and dark wire mesh filling that characterise the better work of its period. Its proportions make it one of the most versatile sizes in the genre, fitting comfortably where larger screens would overwhelm and providing more substantial coverage than the smallest examples.

The frame is executed with the quietly considered detailing that distinguishes the higher tier of this type of production. The brass profiles are clean and precise, with gently rounded corners that soften the overall outline and give the screen a welcoming, domestic quality that sharply right-angled frames do not always achieve. This rounding, which requires a degree of additional craft investment in the bending and finishing of the frame elements, is a small but telling indicator of quality and intention. The vertical hinge strips at the panel joints are cleanly integrated, adding their own vertical cadence to the composition without calling undue attention to themselves.

The fine dark wire mesh that fills each panel is the traditional and most effective material for this purpose: it intercepts sparks and embers reliably while allowing the warmth and visual pleasure of the fire to remain accessible from the room. The contrast between the warm gold of the polished brass and the deep charcoal of the mesh is a combination that has maintained its appeal across successive changes in interior fashion, adapting equally well to period rooms and to contemporary settings.

In very good condition, retaining the original polished brass frame and wire mesh. A practical, well-made, and handsomely proportioned screen, equally suited as a working fire guard or as a purely decorative hearth presence when the fireplace is unlit.