Fire screen, 1891

Brass, copper
Made by W.A.S. Benson and Co. Ltd
h. 74,4 cm - w. 43,2 cm - d. 19,5 cm

MARKS : 'Reg. n°181516' stamped at the back

PROVENANCE : British art market, Shropshire

SIMILAR PIECES : Benson designed two versions of this screen. The round slightly more common version model n°679, can be seen in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Wolfsonian University of Miami and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The asymmetrical version, however, is much rarer, and only three other examples are recorded. One of those oval screens was presumably used by Benson in one of the houses he designed around 1900, Windleshaw House in Withyham, East Sussex.

LITERATURE : Ian Hammertonn, 'W.A.S. Benson Arts and Crafts Luminary Pioneer of Modern Design', Woodbridge, 2005, appendix 1B, n°681A..

COLLECTION : Philadelphia Museum of Art