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Fire screen
Italian
16th century
Medium/Technique
Metal; iron
Dimensions
Overall: 128.3 x 119.4 x 33.7 cm (50 1/2 x 47 x 13 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of John Templeman Coolidge
Accession Number25.31
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsMetalwork
DescriptionRectangular fire screen ormed of two side standards of square iron bars, decorated with lily leaves and pistils, ending in basket cages of strap iron hung with spirally twisted iron rings. Standards joined top and bottom by two bands of double iron bars filled in with scrolled work of strap iron. Top bar has center scrolled finial flanked by two bird-shaped finials, lower bar ends in roughly hammered horses heads. Heavy arched feet of flat iron bands. Hung with 4 forks, 3 lamps and a spit. From Davanzati Palace - Catalogue #914 (spit, #928; forks, 948, 952, 954-5; lamp 956)
Provenance1916, Elia Volpi (b. 1858 - d. 1938), Florence; November 27, 1916, Volpi sale, American Art Galleries, New York, lot 914, to John Templeman Coolidge (b. 1856 - d. 1945), Boston [see note]; 1925, gift of John Templeman Coolidge to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 5, 1925)
NOTE: The fire screen was sold for $2100 along with lots 937, 948, 952, 954, 955, and 956 from the same sale. While Coolidge's name is annotated as the buyer in at least one copy of the auction catalogue, Roberta Ferrazza, "Palazzo Davanzati e le collezioni di Elia Volpi" (Florence, 1994), p. 273, records the buyer as "Miss Paul."
NOTE: The fire screen was sold for $2100 along with lots 937, 948, 952, 954, 955, and 956 from the same sale. While Coolidge's name is annotated as the buyer in at least one copy of the auction catalogue, Roberta Ferrazza, "Palazzo Davanzati e le collezioni di Elia Volpi" (Florence, 1994), p. 273, records the buyer as "Miss Paul."