Over the first half of the 20th century, George and Ellen Booth permanently shaped the cultural and artistic fabric of Michigan with the founding of the Cranbrook, a collection of educational institutions in Bloomingfield Hills. Their mission was to foster passion for art and science: “We wished to see our dreams come true while we were, to the best of our ability, helping to carry on the work of creation.” This included the formation of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, whose inventory of books, artifacts, fine, decorative and applied arts was donated from the Booths’ personal collection for the enjoyment of students and the surrounding community.

George Booth had met French designer Edgar Brandt in Paris in 1921 at his atelier at 101 Boulevard Murat and became one of the designer’s first American clients. Booth had apprenticed as a metalworker at a young age and found himself drawn to Brandt’s stylized ironworks. On a subsequent visit to Paris in May 1929, Booth purchased the present “Danseur” Firescreen for accession into the Cranbrook’s budding collection. Brandt had originally exhibited the “Danseur” model at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. The design features a female figure, likely modeled after Josephine Baker, who dances with a tambourine at the center of a dynamically swirling array of feathers. She stands atop an Egyptian lotus fan, and the firescreen is further ornamented by curled feet and a ribbed border topped with a scallop shell. The whimsical screen strengthened the Cranbrook’s Art Deco holdings, and in return Booth’s patronage provided Brandt important exposure to the American art scene. In 1972, facing financial difficulties, the Cranbrook deaccessioned a number of works including the firescreen and sold them at the landmark collection sale at Sotheby’s, Parke-Bernet where it was acquired by the present owner. Its reappearance at auction offers an opportunity to acquire an exquisite Art Deco design with impeccable provenance.