Louis XVI Style Brass Fireplace Screen with Decorative Mesh, French Work in the Taste of Maison Jansen, Circa 1940

This refined fireplace screen presents a framework in polished brass of Louis XVI inspiration, its fine brass mesh enriched with applied decorative motifs of the greatest elegance: ribbons tied in bows, knotted garlands, laurel wreaths, and the bow and quiver of Diana — the complete vocabulary of Louis XVI neoclassical ornament expressed with the delicacy and precision appropriate to the finest French metalwork. The brass frame, with its architectural clarity and refined moulding profiles, provides a noble surround for the decorative mesh, the whole composition achieving that characteristic balance of lightness and richness that marks the Louis XVI style at its most accomplished.

The decorative programme of this screen — ribbons, knots, laurel wreaths, and the bow and quiver — encapsulates the neoclassical ornamental language codified during the reign of Louis XVI (1774–1792) and disseminated across Europe by the great French ébénistes, bronziers, and decorators of the period. These motifs, drawn from classical antiquity and the pastoral vocabulary of the Enlightenment, experienced a sustained revival in French decorative arts from the Third Republic through the mid-twentieth century. The attribution to the taste of Maison Jansen reflects the house's celebrated mastery of the Louis XVI vocabulary: Stéphane Boudin was arguably the pre-eminent practitioner of neoclassical decorating in the twentieth century, and fireplace accessories of this type — brass screens, fenders, and andirons — formed an important part of the house's production for its grandest residential commissions.

This fireplace screen would bring a note of authentic Louis XVI elegance to a grand salon, a library, or any room designed in the classical French tradition. Its delicate decorative programme — ribbons, laurels, and the bow and quiver of Diana — gives the piece a feminine and poetic character that would complement a chimneypiece in white marble or ormolu-mounted stone with great distinction. A rare and beautifully worked piece from the tradition of French luxury fireplace furnishing at its most refined.