Face screen
Category
Costume
Date
1837 - 1850
Materials
Giltwood, Photographic paper
Measurements
360 x 270 mm
Order this imageCollection
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
NT 135333
Caption
This pair of early Victorian giltwood face screens have received the popular ‘scrap-work’ treatment. The art of cutting and pasting printed images and applying them to decorative objects and furnishings had long been enjoyed as a creative pursuit. The prolific rise in the availability of small albumen cartes de visite and the subsequent ‘cartomania’ phenomenon drew photography into the mix of endless collaging possibilities that many Victorians embraced. Photographic assemblages, often crafted by educated women, are found in album pages and scrapbooks or used to decorate feminine objects such as these face screens from Coughton Court, which have been transformed to reflect the maker’s imagination and personal interests. Spinning their turned handles reveals that both sides of each screen have been covered with images of women in crinoline, men in uniform, a ballet dancer, finely dressed children, artworks and even pets.
Summary
A pair of early Victorian giltwood collage face screens, the shaped banners applied on each side with contemporary photographs, with turned handles.
Provenance
By descent in the Throckmorton family; purchased by the National Trust by private treaty, 2005.