Geometrically Decorated and Comprehensively Inscribed in Pen and Ink Cut Card, Pen, Ink and Watercolour English, c.1850
16.5" high x 11.5" wide x 2.5" deep (incl. stand)
A playful and somewhat flirtatious example of a mid-nineteenth-century fire screen, reflecting contemporary concerns among fashionable women to protect their delicate complexions from the heat and glare of the domestic hearth.
The period was characterised by a marked enthusiasm for wordplay and parlour amusements, including anagrams, rebuses, and riddles, and numerous collections of riddles were published for domestic entertainment. At the same time, the hand-held folding fan functioned not only as a practical accessory but also as a recognised instrument of social communication and flirtation. Fans could be manipulated in various ways—to emphasise a remark, to express playful reproach, or to frame a distant face through the small magnifying “spy-glass” occasionally incorporated into the pivot. Such gestures formed part of the widely cited “language of the fan,” a codified system of signals associated with polite social interaction. In genuine original “as found” condition, a rare survivor.
