French Folding Screen

Find many varieties of an authentic French folding screen available at 1stDibs. A French folding screen — often made from wood, metal and fabric — can elevate any home. There are 151 variations of the antique or vintage French folding screen you’re looking for, while we also have 3 modern editions of this piece to choose from as well. There are many kinds of the French folding screen you’re looking for, from those produced as long ago as the 18th Century to those made as recently as the 21st Century. A French folding screen is a generally popular piece of furniture, but those created in Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern and Louis XVI styles are sought with frequency. A well-made French folding screen has long been a part of the offerings for many furniture designers and manufacturers, but those produced by Baumann France, Fournier Decoration and Gaston André are consistently popular.

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.