Neoclassical Style Three-Panel Expanded Steel Mesh Fireplace Screen with Brass Fleur-de-Lys. France. Circa 1940.

This neoclassical style three-panel fireplace screen makes a bold decorative statement through its combination of expanded steel mesh and applied brass fleur-de-lys ornaments. The body of each of the three hinged panels is filled with expanded steel mesh — a material that gives the screen a more graphic and architecturally robust character than wire lattice mesh, its bold geometric pattern catching the firelight in a particularly dynamic way. The panels are framed in blackened steel, and the composition is topped by a cast brass carrying handle of ornate design.

The decorative programme is provided by applied brass fleur-de-lys: a large example occupies the centre of the wide central panel, and smaller versions adorn each of the flanking panels, introducing a warm golden note against the dark ground of the mesh. The fleur-de-lys — the heraldic lily of the French crown — is a motif that appears throughout French decorative arts of every period, here employed to affirm the piece’s neoclassical character and its place within the French decorative tradition.

Dating to circa 1940, this screen belongs to the interwar and early post-war tradition of quality French fireplace accessories that continued to draw on the historical ornamental vocabulary in the production of sophisticated domestic furnishings.