Lot Essay
The present firescreens, with their beaded guilloche frames and elaborate fringes and tassels, were no doubt intended to display silk panels with flower baskets in the Louis XVI manner. Conceived in the 'Antique' taste introduced by the Prince of Wales during the 1780's, they relate to seat furniture supplied in the early 1790's to Thomas Sheraton, 1st Viscount Anson for Shugborough, Staffordshire, by Charles Smith & Co. of Lower Grosvenor Street, Upholders to King George III (E. Stuart, 'English Fauteuils à la Reine', National Trust Studies, 1983, pp. 81-93).
Their trophies, emblematic of Peace and Plenty, comprising ribbon-tied cornucopias of fruit, are supported by fluted and tassled 'columnar' shafts with basket finials, which feature in a pattern for 'Fire Screens... for Silk and Satin' published by Thomas, pl. XIII in his Appendix to The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793; while cornucopias supported on festive panther feet appear on 'Apollo' tripods published that year in George Richardson's, New Designs for Vases and Tripods, pls. 3 and 5. The screens, being carved on both sides, reflect the contemporary fashion for setting pairs of fire screens at right angles to the fireplace of fashionable drawings rooms.
Their trophies, emblematic of Peace and Plenty, comprising ribbon-tied cornucopias of fruit, are supported by fluted and tassled 'columnar' shafts with basket finials, which feature in a pattern for 'Fire Screens... for Silk and Satin' published by Thomas, pl. XIII in his Appendix to The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793; while cornucopias supported on festive panther feet appear on 'Apollo' tripods published that year in George Richardson's, New Designs for Vases and Tripods, pls. 3 and 5. The screens, being carved on both sides, reflect the contemporary fashion for setting pairs of fire screens at right angles to the fireplace of fashionable drawings rooms.