Face screen

This screen is recorded in an inventory of Harewood House taken in 1795, when it was in a closet off the Circular Dressing Room: ‘2 Face Screen Stands White & Gold'. Nine other face screens were listed in the closet and a group of them, with small circular or oval panels are depicted in an early 19th century view of the Gallery at Harewood. The two screens were probably ordered for the White Drawing Room whose original colour scheme was white and gold. The White Drawing Room was unfinished or perhaps barely begun when Chippendale senior died, so it was completed by his son, and most of the furniture, including this screen, was probably supplied in the 1780s.The screen panel and pole finial are not original and were copied from a very similar pair of screens at Burton Constable Hall. The restoration was done by Mac & Me Ltd of Welwyn. Two later finishes were found over the original on the base and one segment of it has been left unrestored. A detailed conservation report including pigment analysis is in the Chippendale Society files. The base of the screen is weighted with a lead ring. Restored 1981-2 by Mac & Me Ltd, Dick Reid and Frances Eyre with the help of grants from the Pilgrim Trust, the Sir George Martin Trust and the Yorkshire Museum Service.

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