Description

While the modern fireplace screen is framed wire mesh to stop popping sparks, the early firescreen was a heat barrier for people sitting very close to a fire. Firescreens of this type were also used as summertime coverings of fireplace openings. From the small surviving numbers, and as an Enlgish form, heat-barrier firescreens were probably not common in Quebec, and are unknown before the 19-th century. This piece is a typical stylistic mixture with Empire-Restauration feet, a Louix XV-derivative top-rail shape, and vestigial Louis XIII finials. Construction is the typical mortise-and-tenon type.