Nobody, I suppose, would want to put together a very big collection of screens; all the same in a sizable house, especially if there are lots of doors and draughts, one can find room for quite a few.

The aristocrats of this field, of course, are those attractive pole (one-leg) or cheval (two-legs) screens used to protect one’s face from a roaring fire, or to hide an empty fireplace in summertime. All kinds of decorations were given to these screens. Sometimes their original owners bought the pedestal and frame and themselves worked a panel in silk embroidery. As you can see from the pedestal this dates from the Chippendale era.

But the kind of screen one sees most these days is in Berlin work, which made things much easier for the needlewoman because of its set patterns. During the Victorian era many lacquered or silk screens came from China and Japan, and also many fine needlework screens were made here at the end of the century under the influence of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement—no doubt as a reaction from the mechanical reproduction of the Berlin work.

People are also starting to take out of their attics those amusing scrapwork screens which were a craze at the end of last century. Our picture shows one owned by a lady living near Barnard Castle, and it was made by a relative of hers about the time of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. This is confirmed by the fact that it bears a portrait of the old Queen just about that time.

As you see, the screen is a glorious hotchpotch of pictures and scraps. People who have a good one say they find a new picture on it every day, and certainly there are enough to last you a very long time. Some of the pieces are cut out of illustrated magazines or from the popular chromolithographs of the day. They show domestic scenes, buildings, animals—there is one bit obviously out of Landseer’s famous picture “Dignity and Impudence”. Romantic landscapes, farmyard scenes, Christmas card views all jostle each other for a place, and of course there are lots of children about, of all ages. Odd corners and borders are tiled in with those brilliantly coloured glossy “scraps” of birds, flowers and views.

These happy-go-lucky jumbles of this, that and everything were favourite features of Victorian nurseries, and many a wet afternoon must have passed happily in the making of them. But for other rooms in the house there were much more restrained designs, some of them very beautiful, with just a few whole scenes on each panel and separated from each other by grouped flowers and foliage.

Scrapwork screens are being made again today, I believe, using contemporary pictures from magazines. There is certainly a healthy demand for the old ones, to judge by the prices they are making.

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