Bernard Steffen
Mid-20th Century Danish Folk Art Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
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Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Screens and Room Dividers
Brass
Early 20th Century French Screens and Room Dividers
Mirror
Antique 19th Century French Rococo Table Mirrors
Metal
Early 20th Century Victorian Screens and Room Dividers
Tapestry, Mahogany
Mid-20th Century French Classical Greek Screens and Room Dividers
Wood, Paint
Antique Mid-19th Century Folk Art Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
Early 20th Century French Louis XV Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mirrors
Mirror, Wood
Antique Late 19th Century French Late Victorian Screens and Room Dividers
Giltwood
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
Antique Late 19th Century French Louis XVI Screens and Room Dividers
Fabric, Giltwood, Mirror
Antique Mid-19th Century French Louis XVI Screens and Room Dividers
Silk, Wood
Antique Early 1900s French Art Nouveau Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mir...
Copper
Antique Late 19th Century Japanese Late Victorian Paintings and Screens
Silk
Vintage 1920s English Art Deco Screens and Room Dividers
Hardwood, Fruitwood
Antique Early 1900s German Late Victorian Screens and Room Dividers
Fabric, Pine
Early 20th Century American Screens and Room Dividers
Smoked Glass
Recent Sales
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
Finding the Right screens-room-dividers for You
Whether they are implemented as decorative accents or makeshift partitions to ensure privacy, antique and vintage folding screens and room dividers easily introduce sophistication and depth to any space in your home.
The earliest examples of folding screens are said to have originated in China and go back at least as far as the Han dynasty. Screens of the era were heavy structures made of wood and had hinges of cloth or leather. They were adorned with elaborate landscape paintings that were typically created on silk or paper canvases and applied directly to the screen’s panels afterward. Just as they had been in the 20th century and today, the folding screens then were recognized for both their practical and purely decorative properties.
Japanese room-divider screens were also decorated with paintings but constructed to be lightweight and mobile. They took on considerable event-based importance when the structures gained popularity in the East Asian country, as the folding screens were used in performing arts such as concerts, tea ceremonies and more. Later, artists elsewhere warmed to folding screens and sought to create their own.
In European countries such as France, where they were known as paravent, folding screens began to materialize in apartments in Paris, gaining favor with the likes of pioneering couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who is said to have accrued more than 30 and used them as a precursor to what we now know as wallpaper.
On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique and vintage folding screens and room dividers, which, given their history, may do a better job of bringing people and cultures together in your home than sectioning off a space. Search by material to find options in metal, fabric or wood, or browse by style for mid-century modern designs and examples from the Art Deco era.