Antique Face Screens Gallery

The face screen was the ultimate accessory; not only did it serve a practical purpose, but it also projected that most elusive of qualities: the IMAGE.  

Request current  list of available Face Screens with prices.

The face screen was the ultimate accessory; not only did it serve a practical purpose, but it also projected that most elusive of qualities: the IMAGE.   Make up was a tricky business during the 18th and 19th centuries. The ingredients used in the manufacture of creams, rouges, powders etc were both detrimental to the complexion and also unstable.  Wax, fat, arsenic, lead, chalk and all sort of powdered substances were mixed in order to give texture and colour.  Furthermore, these concoctions were applied thickly, the thickness increasing as the skin deteriorated. The deleterious effects of such face treatments were not understood, but it was pretty obvious that they were unstable and prone to “run” when hot.   The Face screen would protect. The handles are sometimes elaborate with ornamental turning , all the better to twirl between the fingers.

Antique Face Screen Painted on silk Circa 1780: this is painted on silk, a scene at the tea table, the expensive fashionable drink of the 18th century. It rather proves the point-the fashionable lady is holding her face screen while her friend imparts some gossip.  A gallant stands by in a characteristic pose.

During the fashionable “soirees” the “beau monde” mingled in rooms kept cosy with open fires and lit by candles. The last thing the ladies and gentlemen (who also pasted themselves with dubious preparations) wanted, was multi-coloured rivulets running down their crumbling cheeks. 

As for the young, they both wanted to protect their youthful skin from the glare of the fire and their rouge from spoiling and undermining their beauty. What to do?  

In summery the styles of face Screens are these:

• 18^th Mostly round, painted and embroidered often on wire hoops.

• 19^th Early. Combined elements, paintings, drawings, embroidery, eccentric combinations of feathers, decoupage etc. Introduction of framing in embossed  paper.

• 19^th Mid. Mostly papier mâché painted by professionals, although other forms still fashionable.      

    

    

    

THE FACE SCREEN

Hold the face Screen up, keep the pesky flame away from your face and save face in more ways than one. Using your face screen you could also avoid the eye of a disagreeable acquaintance, stop an unpleasant encounter, create your own private face space.

We are of course talking of a time when to be short on style was more of a crime than to be short on principle. The face screen had to be a work of art. It was an object for hiding your face, but also of exhibiting your intellectual, artistic, creative and fashionable inner face. 

Your choice said it all: did you paint well, did you select well, did you commission well, was your needlework up to scratch?  You were aware that the company would scrutinize your little screen, so you waved it elegantly on its exquisite handle, wafting the scent of your erudition and asserting the prodigiosity of your talent. 

You made it known that you were interested in botany, the classics, the orient; you visited interesting places, the theatre and the cathedrals; you could paint, draw, embroider; you had the aesthetic sensitivity which allowed you to combine different elements with artistry and flair.  

If you had no time or inclination to make your own screen you made sure you chose well. You selected a creation on paper or papier mâché painted by a trained artist, or a talented gentle lady, who had hit hard times. Charles Dickens gives us a glimpse of such artistically rich but financially stressed lives. The subject of the art work could be chosen for its sheer beauty; birds, flowers, swags in combinations of nature and fantasy in which golden rococo cartouches caught the light and the eye of your friends.

If beauty was not enough, you could give a hint of your inner self with gloomy Gothic scenes, suggestive of moody introspection. You could also display your interest in the theatre, the classics, Cathay or any other subject that opened a window into your very soul. You could use different screens for different occasions: Chinoiserie fancies for a ball, ruins for a cerebral gathering.  

The face screen was your shield, but also a trophy of your inner self; a pennant marking your place in society.  

Request current  list of available Face Screens with prices.

See: 

Antique Boxes Tea Caddies Society

Japanned Papier Mâché and Tinware

Encyclopedia of Ephemera A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents by Maurice Rickards

 

All text and images and linked images are © 1999-2017 Antigone Clarke and Joseph O'Kelly. If you require any further information on permitted use, or a licence to republish any material, email us at copyright@hygra.com