A word about fire-screens.  The perfect time to make use of one is when you are not actually lighting the fire.  I think calling these things fire-screens is perhaps misleading.  Certainly those tall things from a much earlier age with a pole like a standard lamp but with a sort of flat square-ish fan on top are meant to be placed beside a fireside chair to screen delicate complexions from the heat of the flames in the fireplace. Oddly enough these are called pole-screens    However, the purpose of the wood and glass framed picture or fabric items of the 1920’s through to the 1950’s is not to screen a blazing fire but to screen the empty fireplace (or possibly the un-emptied fireplace!).

So throughout the warmer months, when the fire is not needed, the decorative fire-screen stands on the hearth to provide a bright (or subtle) alternative focal point in the sitting room.  Every home should have one!  Okay, every home with a fire-place should have one.