This pole-screen is a highly unusual application of the naturalistic arboreal carving known as ‘rustic’ furniture, which became popular in the second half of the eighteenth century. This inventive and expressive decorative mode is in stark contrast to almost all of the familiar, more dominant styles of the period – the Rococo preferred to embrace the more fluid and profusely elaborate side of the natural world, while natural details within neoclassicism tended to be contained to smaller motifs that were traditional and stylised (such as the anthemion or acanthus leaf). While some early manifestations of this all-over naturalism see it blended with chinoiserie ornament, the style soon established itself as a wholly original mode of decoration under the name of ‘rustic’ or ‘Forrest’ style. These ‘rustic’ pieces were usually intended for garden use or structures that had a greater connection to the outdoors, such as grottoes and summerhouses. One of the pioneers was Robert Manwaring, whose 1765 publication The Cabinet and Chair Maker's Real Friend and Companion contained several designs in this style and maintained the fiction that they were “made with the Limbs of Yew or Apple Trees” (fig. 1).1,2 Chippendale’s 1762 Director contains a design for a chair with a ‘rustic’ right leg (fig. 2),3 and there were a great many in the significant 1790 publication Ideas for Rustic Furniture. The latter stayed in print for decades and its illustrations went on to appear in French and German publications, usually with a prominent.mes ntion of its association to England. Though the style is understudied, it is possible that its international popularity benefited from the strong Anglophile current in eighteenth-century thought and culture, which saw manifested in the gardens, dresses and customs of the English a ‘naturalness’ and informality that was particular to the nation. There is a late eighteenth-century ‘Rustic’ chair in the collects ion of the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession number W.61-1952.
Right: Fig 2: A Thomas Chippendale design demonstrating several of the styles he was capable of producing for clients - the left leg is clearly ‘Rustic’
Generally, though, the ‘rustic’ style is seen in seat and table furniture, and examples of its application for more specific pieces are rare. In Ideas for Rustic Furniture, though, we do find a design for some basin stands in this style (fig. 3).4 To apply ‘Rustic’ carving to a pole-screen is an original combination of decorative style and practical function – this blend implies that it was intended for an interior in a garden structure that was heated with a fireplace. The fire-screen has a long history, allowing people to cosily enjoy the ambient warmth of a fire by deflecting the more concentrated blast of heat from the face and body. They became increasingly widespread during eighteenth century as fire-grates became larger in form and more intense as a heat source – in the late 1750s, Samuel Johnson even remarked archly that “we have twice as many fire-screens as chimneys”.5 While the wood carving of the present lot is rare, the leather screen is characteristic for pole-screens of the period, which were commonly decorated with gilt leather painted with birds and flowers and were usually sourced from Spain and Flanders.
1 The quotation: M. Heckscher, 'Eighteenth-Century Rustic Furniture Designs', Furniture History, vol. XI, 1975, p.63.
2 The image reproduced in: P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, 1984, pl.177.
3 A New Edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director [1762], ed. R. Edwards, 1957, pl.XXIV
4 Heckscher, pl.144.
5 Quoted in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, vol III, 1927, p.75.