Spanish Screen

Voilà le drame! This late 19th-century Spanish folding screen, found in a Catalonian masia, commands attention with its fabric-wrapped hardwood frame patterned in moody florals and leafy silhouettes. Folding screens like this have long doubled as both functional dividers and decadent décor, tracing back to their introduction from East Asia into European interiors during the Renaissance, where they quickly became fixtures in boudoirs and salons for their theatrical flair. The fabric here shows its age with small rips and worn spots, but that patina is the proof of a life well lived, shuffling between rooms and stories. Sylvie would plant it behind a bedframe as an instant headboard or swing it open to carve out a private nook in a studio apartment, the kind of piece that rewrites a room in seconds.