The Bayou Bend fire screen is doubly atypical, first, in having wooden rather than framed textile or paper panels, and second, for an accompanying folding-shelf, an addition that corresponds to the “fire Screen with a leaf to set candlestick on,” charged by Salem cabinetmaker Jacob Sanderson in 1802. Its pictorial marquetry inlay of shells appears on a variety of furniture forms, largely of eastern Massachusetts origin. The presence of similar inlays on New York and Baltimore card tables raises the possibility of a common English origin.

Technical notes: Mahogany, unidentified inlay. The legs are secured with an iron brace; the T-shaped bracket is held in place by an attached support. The screen appears to retain its original hardware.

Related examples: Comstock 1965, no. 545, purportedly made by Thomas Hodgkins; Antiques 63 (March 1953), p. 171; Montgomery 1966b, pp. 246–47, no. 203; Sack 1969–92, vol. 4, p. 1017, no. P3820; Antiques 117 (March 1980), p. 458. Candlestands with comparable turnings include Swan 1945, pp. 223–24; Sack 1969–92, vol. 2, p. 305, no. 744.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.