Title:
[Screen, folding screen]
Publication Information:
England[?], c1890.
Physical description:
Wood; Leather; Metal, brass; Fabric, canvas ; 1850 h x 1680 w (each panel is 560 mm wide) x 25 d mm.
Format:
furniture
image (online)
Accession number:
F119;
Notes:
Different Readings - a contemporary interpretation of the Allport Furniture Collection. Catalogue, 2005. ISBN 1 920865 35 7
Folding panel screen. Black wooden frame covered with painted leather on canvas back. The 3 leather panels are painted with a landscape including an urn of flowers, exotic birds and stone architectural features suggestive of ancient ruins. The leather is tacked to the wooden frame with brassed steel nails, some of which are corroded.
Folding screens have a range of functions: They can be used as mobile walls to define space, or perhaps provide privacy; they provide protection from draughts or the heat of the fire; and they offer a surface for decoration. Such a useful piece of furniture obviously has a very long history, and has been adopted by many different cultures, but the Chinese have been credited with its invention.
Formerly in the 2nd bedroom at Cedar Court. Displayed at The Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts since 1972. Different Readings, 31 March - 1 July 2005. Ten Days on the Island Festival exhibition. This piece was the source piece which inspired a contemporary screen made by Richard Skinner, titled 'Tubular Cells'. The two pieces were exhibited side by side in Room 6, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts.
Condition:
As at 1998: Wooden frame stable and intact; minor paint losses and heavy scratches to the wooden frame; leather screen is stable on two of the three panels, however the decorative paint layers are cracked in many locations as a result of impacts; the proper right leather panel has a 25 cm tear approximately half way up - this panel is also tearing away from the support in the bottom proper left corner; some of the metal rivets that hold the leather to the wooden frame are heavily corroded.
Citation:
Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania.
Record ID:
SD_ILS:1053756
Electronic resources:
https://stors.tas.gov.au/ALLPORT_AQN_F119