Fire Screen (c. 1878–80): Art, History and Details

Fire Screen (c. 1878–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Herter Brothers (American).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the 1870s the New York firm of Herter Brothers produced some of the most sophisticated and technically refined furniture made anywhere in the world at that date. Although the firm is known to have made a considerable quantity of gilded furniture, this fire screen is one of only a few examples to survive in good condition. The painted and gilded embossed panel of birds and flowers was likely made in Japan.

Object facts

• Title: Fire Screen
• Date: c. 1878–80
• Creator attribution: Herter Brothers (American)
• Culture: America
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: gilded wood, painted and gilded wood panels, brocaded silk, embossed paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 131.8 x 76.2 x 58.3 cm (51 7/8 x 30 x 22 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1997.58

A detail from the museum

Produced by the New York decorating firm Herter Brothers, this screen would have been used to shield sitters from the heat of a fireplace.

Collection credit

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Museum Acquires Major Chuck Close Painting, 19th-century Fire Screen, Rare Prints & Drawings,” June 9, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Hawley, Henry H., "A Herter Brothers Firescreen", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 38 no. 03, March 1998
• Howe, Katherine S., "Herter Brother's Furniture," FMR (April 1998).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.