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FAN BOOK

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iOJ

ICD

.cIVER PERCIVAL

THE FAN BOOK

CHATS ON OLD
JEWELLERY & TRINKETS

By MacIVER PERCIVAL

With nearly 300 Illustrations.
Large crown 8vo, 6/- net.

" The book is very thorough, dealing
as it does with classic, antique and modern
ornaments; with gold, silver, steel and
pinchbeck ; with the precious stones, the
commoner stones, and imitation." —
Outlook.

" * Chats on Old Jewellery and
Trinkets' is a book which will enable
every woman to turn over her jewel-case
with a fresh interest and a new intelli-
gence; a practical guide for the humble
but anxious collector. ... A good
glossary of technicalities and many ex-
cellent illustrations complete a valuable
contribution to collector's lore."

Illustrated London News.

*% Send for a copy of the latest
prospectus of Unwinds " Chat" Series of
handbooks for collectors.

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD LONDON

THEEtfXN BOOK

MAcIVER PERCIVAL

.IVX

QO 3-ruoIoo rloii ni

4tiw

3vft .

bns bavuso

WITH 50

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gniad blog lo

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD
DON: ADELPHI

:o BY

RONTO

-.ASTE-

FRONTISPIECE.

French Fan. Early Louis XVI. Skin
painted with much spirit in rich colours on a
silver ground Subject : " La Servante Maitresse."
The sticks elaborately carved and gilded, five
shades of gold being used.

M. Duvelleroy.

THE

BOOK

MAcIVER PERCIVAL

56954

WITH 50 ILLUSTRATIONS

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD
LONDON: ADELPHI TJ

MICROFILMED BY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

LIBRARY
MASTER NEGATIVE NO.:

First published in 1920

PREFACE

To the collector fans offer a very wide field, and
the subject is one round which much romance
and history has centred.

" Since summer first was leafy " man has
instinctively reached for a branch of a tree or
a large leaf to dispel the heated air and ward off
flies, and early in the stages of dawning civiliza-
tion, even among quite primitive peoples, has
come the practice of elaborating and making
more permanent these simple fans placed ready
by Nature.

A complete collection of every kind, if such
were made, would include examples from every
period of history and every part of the world,
but it would be too vast to be really understood
by any one person. While many examples of
savage workmanship would be of absorbing
interest to the anthropologist, and others, archaic
in design though exquisite in execution, to the
archaeologist, the fans used in Europe during
the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth cen-
turies would afford the chief attraction to most
fan collectors.

As it is for them this book is written, I have

8 PREFACE

not included more than a passing reference to
any fans earlier than the sixteenth century.
The fans of primitive peoples are entirely omitted.
Oriental fans are so interesting and the subject
so vast that they would need a volume of equal
size to this to do them justice, so they, too, are
not included.

The chief portion of the book is taken up with
the folding fans used in Europe in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Not only the fans
themselves are described, but the methods used
in their manufacture at that time, and the
materials of which they were made, which will
help collectors to judge of the genuineness or
otherwise of specimens offered to them, and give
an added interest to the study of those they
already own. The mere possession of a number
of objects of the same kind gives a very poor
kind of pleasure compared with that of finding
out the history of each example, the acquisition
of others to fill gaps, the weeding out of undesir-
ables, and the general knowledge of all that
belongs to the subject.

It has been said that nowadays " to collect
fans one must be a millionaire — or a burglar."
If the object of a collector were the attainment
in a short time of a large collection of the finest
and choicest examples, this is no doubt true.
If, on the other hand, the desire is to pursue a
most interesting quest, and in the end to achieve
a small cabinet of representative fans, each having

PREFACE 9

some significance and typical of some country
or period, it is, even in these days, emphatically
a mistaken idea.

It is not always the fan which has the most
highly stippled and finished leaf and the most
gold on the sticks which is of the highest value
to the real fan lover, a fact that makes it possible
to attain desirable specimens otherwise unavail-
able. There may be more of historical signifi-
cance and value in a printed fan than in one
painted by a 'prentice hand, another fact not
always understood.

Really fine fans, however, are a class by them-
selves. They are " pearls of great price," and
few will fail to appreciate them when met with.
If, however, much search does not meet with
success, surely the pleasure of the quest has been
great. " To travel hopefully is better than to

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I MOST gratefully acknowledge the help received from
various sources, especially the under-mentioned : —

The Authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museums for
the beautiful photographs which they have had specially
made for me and permission to use the most excellent
copyright photographs. (Plates XIII and XXVII.) The
Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum
for facilities for photographing examples in the Schreiber
Collection. The Representatives of the Executors of the
late Lady Charlotte Schreiber for permission to reproduce
certain illustrations from " Fans and Fan Leaves." Francis
Edwards, Esq., M.A., Clerk to the Worshipful Company of
Fan Makers, for kindly allowing me to examine the books
of the Company and other assistance. Mons. Duvelleroy
for the loan of many interesting photographs and other
kind help, and the many collectors who have allowed me to
examine and describe specimens in their collections.

CONTENTS

PAGB

PREFACE . . . . . .7

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . « . IO

LIST OF PLATES . . . ' . .13

CHAPTER

I. PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND

EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES . . .17

II. PRINTED FAN LEAVES . . . . 103

III. FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES . . . 141

IV. ORIENTAL FANS MADE FOR THE EUROPEAN

MARKET . . .. . . 199

V. STICKS . . . . . . 211

VI. FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS . . 229

VII. SOME FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS, AND DE-
SIGNERS . . . . . 269

VIII. SOME BOOKS OF INTEREST TO FAN COLLECTORS 289

IX. THE FAN IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY . 295

GLOSSARY ..... 313

INDEX ...... 341

LIST OF PLATES

FRENCH FAN : LA SERVANTE MAITRESSE Frontispiece

PLATE PAGE

i. FRENCH FANS: (i) MARRIAGE OF LOUIS xiv.

(2) TOILET SCENE . . .25

II. FRENCH FAN : FINDING OF MOSES . .31

III. FRENCH FAN : CLASSICAL SCENE . . 37

iv. FRENCH FAN: TELEMARQUE . . -43

V. FRENCH FAN : THE EMBARKATION . . 47
VI. FRENCH FAN : TELEMARQUE AND THE

NYMPHS . . . . . 51

VII. FRENCH FAN : PASTORAL SCENE . . 55

VIII. FRENCH FAN : MARRIAGE FETES, 1770 . 59
IX. FRENCH FAN : ENLARGED PORTION OF

PLATE II . . • i . . 63
X. FRENCH FAN : ENLARGED PORTION OF

PLATE III . . i" . '67

XL ITALIAN FAN I THE STORMING OF JERUSALEM 73

xii. ITALIAN FANS: (i) VENUS AND ADONIS. (2)

VIEWS NEAR POZZUOLI . . -79

xiii. ENGLISH FANS: (i) FLOWERS. (2) PASTORAL

GROUP . . . . .83

14 LIST OF PLATES

PLATE PAGE

XIV. (l) DUTCH FAN : PASTORAL SUBJECT. (2)

GERMAN FAN : BACCHUS AND ARIADNE 99
XV. ENGLISH FAN : GAME OF PIQUET . . II J

xvi. ENGLISH FANS: (i) MR. OSBORNE'S DUCK

HUNTING, 1754. (2) NEW DANCE FAN.

(3) FANOLOGY . . . .123

xvii. ENGLISH FANS: (i) THEATRICAL SCENE.

(2) ROMEO AND JULIET . . 127

XVIII. ENGLISH FAN. PORTION OF FAN, PLATE

XVIII ENLARGED V • .131

XIX. ENGLISH FAN : (i) HOLLYWOOD BRISE FAN.

(2) PIERCED AND PAINTED IVORY FAN 145
XX. FRENCH FAN: VERNIS MARTIN . . 149

XXI. BRISE FANS. FRENCH FAN, VERNIS MARTIN.

DUTCH FAN, PAINTED ON IVORY . I$5

XXII. FRENCH FANS : (i) CABRIOLET. (2) THREE-
TIERED CABRIOLET . . .159

XXIII. (i) FRENCH FAN : SUBJECT, REBECCA AND

ELIEZAR. (2) MANDARIN FAN . . 165

XXIV. (i) LORGNETTE FAN. (2) SILK FAN. (3)

GERMAN SILK FAN . . .171

XXV. FAN MAKING. .... 237

XXVI. FAN MAKING. .... 243

XXVII. FAN MAKING. . . . . 25 1

XXVIII. ENGLISH FAN ; SATIN AND SILK . . 257

LIST OF PLATES 15

PLATE PAGE

XXIX. VERNIS MARTIN .... 263

XXX. VARIOUS FANS, NINETEENTH CENTURY I (l)
GERMAN FAN. (2) ENGLISH FAN. (3)
DUTCH FAN. (4) SPANISH FAN . 30!

XXXI. ETCHED FANS. (l AND 2) IN THE CHINESE

TASTE . . . .323

THE PAINTED FANS

OF THE

SEVENTEENTH

AND

EIGHTEENTH

CENTURIES

CHAPTER I

THE PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH
AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

IT is not difficult to guess the reason why the
fan should have been such a favourite field for
the display of delicate and highly-finished deco-
ration. It had a personality which expressed
the moods and customs of its owner as no other
species of adornment could do. It was almost
part of the costume, yet, not being attached to
the dress, it could be closely examined and
admired in a way that would have been impossible
where part of an actual garment was concerned.
When at a loss for a subject of conversation, the
story pictured on the leaf must often have pro-
vided a promising theme, whether it showed a
classical scene in which portraits of well-known
contemporaries — perhaps of royalty itself — might
be recognized under the guise of gods and god-
desses in Olympia or as the principal personages
of some historic scene, or whether it were of an
even more fanciful type, and merely showed
graceful figures bathed in golden light, dancing,
singing, making music, or making love.

These fan leaves may not be works of the
2 »

20 PAINTED FANS

highest art, but they are so much in keeping
with their purpose that they are well worth our
careful attention ; and as we study them we must
bear in mind their period, the state of Court
life, the etiquette and fashions of their time,
and the varying tastes in decoration which they
so faithfully mirror.

It is, however, curious that while fan leaves are
often painted with much skill, and display con-
siderable knowledge of design and composition, it
is the rarest thing to come across one which
possesses a really high degree of artistic merit or
even any very pronounced originality. Actual
copies of frescoes and pictures, pastiches — often
very cleverly arranged — in the styles of popular
painters, classical scenes executed in the con-
ventional style of the day, and somewhat trite
renderings of actual events, constitute the subjects
of an overwhelming number of painted fans.

Why we so rarely find the mastery of the art
of painting minutely, yet broadly, which was pos-
sessed by the limners and the miniaturists who
" painted in little " their marvellous portraits all
through the period contemporary with the
" Golden Age " of the fan is a mystery.

Well-painted fans are graceful in composition,
delicate in colour, and charming in sentiment,
but they lack the touch of greatness, and there
are no masterpieces among them that one can
put alongside the works, for example, of Oliver,
Plimer, or Cosway. It may be that the know-

GENERAL REMARKS 2l

ledge that their work would be broken by the
inevitable inflexible radiating lines, which of
necessity cut up the mount, deterred those who
might have executed truly inspired work from ex-
pending their abilities on this otherwise tempting
field.

These same lines offer a difficult problem
which is very seldom solved satisfactorily ; in-
deed, in most cases the fact that they exist is
ignored, and the design is carried out in exactly
the same way as it would have been if the material
were always to remain tightly stretched. In
use, however, the leaf, of whatever it is composed,
is not flat, and besides the lines caused by the
folds, there is also the play of light and shade
which results from the plaits being always
slightly contracted. The recognized convention,
however, was to treat the decoration as if these
lines and the folds were non-existent, and, as a
rule, no attempt was made to take the bull by
the horns and make them an interesting feature
in the decoration, or at least to make them play
an important, if subservient, part. The painter
ignored them, and they retaliated by breaking
up the composition of his best groups, and cutting
across delicate painted figures.

Still, though this branch of art produced no
real master who, though anonymous, could
nevertheless be recognized by the personality
of his work, we must be grateful for the many
pleasant qualities to be found in the majority of

M PAINTED FANS

the better fans. The nice sense of balance and
proportion, and the daintiness and sureness of
touch, place the fan painters of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries high amongst the artist
craftsmen of the day.

The anonymity which was so nearly universal
seems all the more remarkable when we consider
how usual it was to sign any kind of art work.
Contemporary furniture and metal work are
often signed, while pictures, miniatures, and
pastels bore the signature of the artist almost
invariably. Engraved fan leaves, too, very fre-
quently bear a name either of artist, engraver, or
publisher, so that the anonymity of the painted
leaves is the more inexplicable.

Signatures on fans are very seldom genuine,
though it does not in the least follow that because
the signature is an obvious forgery (" Watteau "
on a Louis Seize fan, for example) the fan is
therefore a modern production ; it is very likely
merely an example of an unfortunate failing
which led one or two collectors at the end of the
nineteenth century to ascribe all their treasures
to some well-known master, and sometimes, as
he had quite unaccountably not seen fit to place
his name on them, they repaired the omission !
A skilful repairer can remove the forged name,
which makes a piece of excellent workmanship
ridiculous, and this course should certainly be
pursued. These forged signatures seldom err on
the score of modesty, as the work is generally

WATTEAU FANS 28

attributed to the best-known masters, such as
Watteau, Lancret, or Fragonard. I believe no
really authentic example exists signed by any
of these great painters, though many fans have
been attributed to them — generally with little
show of probability. Writers of fiction are fond
of including " fans painted by Watteau " among
the treasures which the old " character " of a
dealer hoards in his dirty back parlour, shown to
a few of the elect only, and sold to none.

Balzac in " Cousin Pons " introduces an episode
based on a fan " signed by Watteau," which was
said to have been painted for the Marquise de
Pompadour.

" It is time," says the old man, who is making
the choicest gift possible from his treasures,
" for that which has served Vice to be in the
hands of Virtue ; a hundred years have been
required to work the miracle. No princess, be
assured, can have anything to compare with this,
because, unfortunately, it is human nature to do
more for a Pompadour than for a virtuous
Queen."

Honore de Balzac was as deep a student of
human nature as ever existed, but the " lovely
Vice " which inspired Watteau to paint this
(mythical) masterpiece could hardly have been the
fair Pompadour, who was still unborn at the
day of his death.

Among the few artists who were exceptions
to this general rule of anonymity was Leonardo

PLATE I.

1. French Fan Leaf. Louis XIV. Removed
from stick and pasted on wood. Subject : "The
Marriage of the King with Maria Theresa of
Spain."

2. French Fan Leaf. Louis XIV. Removed
from stick, pasted on wood, and the portion outside
the chicken skin coloured in accordance to form
a panel-shaped picture.

Both in the Schreiber Collection.

PLATE I.

PAINTED FANS IN FRANCE 27

Germo, working during the early part of the
eighteenth century. His work is of the usual
classical type current at that date, and has
little to distinguish it from his anonymous con-
temporaries.

Other signatures recorded are " Francis Xavery,
fecit, 1763." On a fan finely painted in gouache.
Subject : A Betrothed Couple led by Hymen to
the Altar of Love. " Capaigne, 1766." Several
other names of artists who have either signed
fans or are known to have painted them will
be found in the list given on pp. 272-287.

Painted Fans in France.

The folding fan which had painting for its
sole decoration appears to date from somewhere
about the middle of the seventeenth century,
though it was some time before it ousted the
screen-shaped fan from its position as first favourite.
The earlier fan painters seem to have taken the
painters of illuminated manuscripts and the tapestry
designers as their models, rather than the contem-
porary painters of easel pictures, as their compo-
sitions are of a distinctly decorative character.
The interest is generally distributed over the
entire field, and though full of detail, there is little
variation of light and shade. They are generally
painted in gouache on a ground either of paper
or skin.

An interesting example is to be seen in the
Schreiber Collection. Unfortunately, it has suffered

28 PAINTED FANS

from the effects of time, and still more from the
well-intentioned efforts of the over-zealous restorer ;
but enough remains to show what a fine leaf
it originally was. It represents the " Marriage
of Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of
Spain " in an allegorical composition. The bride
and bridegroom are seated in the centre under
a canopy, surrounded by ladies of the Court ;
a cupid floats in the air holding a garland and
branches of palm and olive, and on the right
four other cupids are engaged in preparing the
nuptial couch. This leaf is painted on paper
in gouache, and has been removed from a mount
and pasted on a piece of wood, and painting to
fill it out to a rectangular shape has been added.
It is of French workmanship, and probably
painted for some one connected with the Court,
possibly the Queen herself.

The Schreiber Collection also includes another
early Louis XIV fan, which, though of less his-
torical importance than the " Marriage Fan/'
is of considerable interest, dating as it does
from a period whence few specimens have survived.
It has as its subject " The Lover's Agency/' and
the description in the catalogue gives a good
idea of it.

"In a classical building on an island tables
covered with green cloth, to which various couples
approach, served by cupids, who present them
with placards, inscribed : ' Conge Pour Un Amant
Constant/ etc. ; above the arched gateway the

LOUIS XIV 29

inscription : ' Bureau Dadresse Pour les Jeunes
Aman ' ; on a globe a cupid is seated with a
banner inscribed : ' L'Amour avec ces Traits
Veut blesser tout le Monde/ etc. ; without are
vessels with sails, inscribed : ' Vous qui cherchez
Dun Amoureux Desir/ etc." This leaf has also
been removed from a mount and pasted on a
panel of wood, which has been painted to complete
an oval shape.

Two fans in the Walker Collection, dispersed
in 1882, are rather later than these, but are very
interesting specimens of early Louis XIV fans.

Sometimes a less generalized mode of treatment
was adopted, and the subject was contained
within a cartouche, but more often the scheme
of decoration consists of a composition of numerous
figures arranged so as to spread the interest
over the whole fan.

Rather later the more centralized style becomes
the rule, and the main composition consists of
a principal group of figures containing all the
actual actors in the scene represented, which
occupies the middle of the fan.

They are painted in brilliant colours on a
fairly light ground, which shades off towards
the sides into dark masses made up sometimes
of subordinate groups of figures, but more often
of foliage, columns, rocks, flowers, and so on,
according to the exigencies of the subject. The
general colouring is bright, rich, and varied, rose
and a rather peculiar daffodil yellow being

PLATE II.

French Fan. Late Louis XIV. Subject : " The
Finding of Moses," painted in gouache on chicken
skin. The leaf has been cut on the right-hand
side and on the top, probably in order to fit the
later stick, on which it is now mounted. The
figures are painted with a broad touch, the faces
expressive, but not highly " finished." There is
a preponderance of rich rose colour in the draperies.
All the figures have red hair. The stick is of
ivory, with button of the same material. Reverse
plain.

LATE LOUIS XIV 33

favourite tones ; gilding is very sparingly employed,
and in some cases gives the impression that it
has been added at some later time to freshen the
effect, perhaps, or to bring the fan up to date
when gilding was more fashionable.

The brilliant hues of the robes of the figures
in the foreground afford a pleasing contrast to
the more subdued tones of the background, which
often represents a distant wooded landscape,
with lake or other water, and some architectural
feature, such as a church, chateau, or classical
temple or ruins in tones of soft greyish blues,
mellowed by golden light. What matter that
such effulgence " never was on sea or sky," at
all events it irradiates the compositions of the
fan painters of the later days of Louis XIV, and
by its harmonious glow gives interest to work
which without it might seem but trite and
commonplace.

The actual painting of these fans, which are
generally executed in gouache, is, in good examples,
straightforward and decisive, and the painters
were evidently men who knew exactly the effect
they were aiming at, and achieved it with the
utmost economy of effort. Not that there is
anything sketchy or unfinished about their style,
it is simply that there are no needless touches ;
two strokes are not made when one will achieve
an equal, if not better, result. Instead of " stip-
pling," the brush work follows the form, and is
often very expressive.

34 PAINTED FANS

The draperies of the figures are generally of
flowing " classical " type, and are often most
happy in their arrangement. The shading of
the folds follows the convention adopted in much
contemporary needlework and tapestry, the
shadows being indicated by a deeper tone of
the general tint. Thus blue is shaded with
darker blue, daffodil yellow with orange, rose
pink with red or crimson.

The subjects were generally chosen from well-
known classical stories, mythological scenes, or
religious subjects, as " The Judgment of Paris,"
" Eliezer and Rebecca at the Fountain/'
" Belshazzar's Feast," " Jephtha's Daughter,"
" Olympus," " Venus and Vulcan."

While the details of classical costumes and
armour are hardly such as to satisfy modern ideas
of archaeological accuracy in such matters, they
were sufficiently different from those worn in
everyday life to show that the personages repre-
sented belonged to the heroic age, justifying the
divergencies from the accurate presentment of
minor details.

One thing is very noticeable about the arrange-
ment of these fans : the artists never seem to
have felt quite happy in confining their composi-
tions within the space allotted to them. The
shape of the fan leaf — a segment of a circle —
never appears to coincide with their composition
as originally conceived. Almost always the idea
appears to have been originally based on an

LATE LOUIS XIV 35

oval placed lengthways of the fan. This oval is
rendered incomplete by the lower border of the
leaf, which cuts out a semicircular piece of the
foreground. It is generally quite easy to fill
up this hiatus mentally, and it appears probable
that in many cases the artist had before him an
original in the shape of a panel, whether painting,
tapestry, or engraving, which, though not copied
exactly, set the key to the composition.

The most happily arranged leaves are those
in which subordinate groups of figures are placed
on the right or left side, with accessories of suit-
able kind to balance them on the other, while
the main interest is concentrated on the central
figures, who have to be placed almost in the
middle distance, as in the middle part of the fan
the immediate foreground is cut away. Thus,
if the subject is a feast, the banquet and guests
occupy the centre, with a group of servants at
one side, and piles of fruit, wine cups, and folds
of drapery on the other. This kind of conven-
tion grew up gradually, those leaves, where
there is little attempt to accommodate the composi-
tion to the space to be filled, being generally
the earliest.

In spite of the brilliant colours, these Louis XIV
leaves were decidedly more sober than the later
painted leaves. There is always a good deal of
dignity of bearing about the personages, even
when they are supposed to be disporting them-
selves at their ease. The material of these fans

PLATE 111.

French Fan. Period, Louis XV. Leaf gouache
on chicken skin. The subject has not been
identified. Warrior and king drinking, while a
goddess prevents an attack by an armed soldier
and a semi-nude youth armed only with a
javelin by raising a cloud of smoke or mist.

Principal figure in rich tones of mazarine,
orange, purple, and green. The goddess's draperies,
pink and blue ; curtain, sage green. The rococo
framing of typical Louis XV character in rich
shades of amaranth, brown, and dull green,
pervenche blue, purple, and rose. A considerable
amount of gilding.

Reverse : Group of fruit — grapes, peaches, and
cherries — finely painted.

Sticks of ivory fretted, carved, gilt, and further
embellished by the application of powdered pearl
shell in the depressions of the shellwork carving.

Design includes five reserves of cartouche-like
form, the two larger painted with Grecian ruins ;
the three smaller with festoons of roses and various
small flowers. There are four groups of figures
carved with a lady and cavalier in various atti-
tudes; as a background there are gilt arabesques
and festoons, and baskets of flowers, and birds
of undeterminate species carved in the ivory,
ungilt. The guard sticks are of ^carved and fretted
ivory, similar in ornament to the inner sticks.
They are backed with red foil, which shows
through the interstices. The rivet head is jewelled
with a white paste set in silver.

EARLY LOUIS XV 89

is often of paper, or a rather stout skin, which
sometimes has a rather more open grain than
later chicken skin.

There is no hard-and-fast rule by which we
can distinguish a late Louis XIV from the early
Louis XV leaf, the same classical and historical
scenes were popular ; biblical subjects were not
fashionable. A new type of subject, however,
was introduced, and very soon became the vogue.

The Conversations galantes, Moments musicales,
Dejeuners sur I'herbe, and Pastorelles, which
were the theme of so many pictures of the day,
made the most delightful fan leaves, and numerous
and charming are such examples. They are
inspired by Watteau, Bouchier, and Fragonard,
but are very seldom transcripts of any one work
by these masters. The fan painters were adept
at taking here a figure, there a group, from another
work a landscape background, and combining
them into a sufficiently harmonious whole, satis-
factory, no doubt, to their clientele, and less
troublesome than the invention of entirely new
designs. In many cases, no doubt, in thus follow-
ing the fashionable painters, they were supplying
a demand, because some of them, at all events,
were capable of originating very charming
compositions. The classical subjects were treated
in very much the same way as in earlier days as
far as arrangement goes, but there was decidedly
more freedom in the lines ; the classical drapery
was not so voluminous, and there was even more

40 PAINTED FANS

concentration of interest upon the central group.
The classical subjects are as a rule somewhat
stereotyped in treatment, and are hardly so
typical of the period (although perhaps more
numerous) as the pastiches of Watteau and
others.

The actual painting of this period tended
towards a dryer and harder handling than before,
though there were many exceptions. The colour-
ing is rich, yet delicate ; rose colour, turquoise
blue, and rich yellows and orange are relieved
against masses of grey-green foliage, while from
the centre radiates a light which is often more
silvery than golden, giving on the whole a cooler
effect than the earlier leaves. Where there is a
space to be filled in at the sides, it is occupied
by delicate tracery in gold and colours. Whatever
the style of the rest of the leaf, this part of the
decoration is decidedly rococo in treatment.
The gold is generally laid on in fine lines over
the colours, giving a pleasant effect, somewhat
like " shot silk." It seems likely that certain
painters may have specialized in executing this
tracery, because the same kind of rococo orna-
ment is used for the corners of a Fete Champ etre
after Watteau, or a classical subject in the
traditional style. This is all the more probable
because the work on fans was in many ways
shared between different workers ; thus, the
ivory of the stick was roughly cut to shape in
one village, carved in another, and sent to Paris

LATE LOUIS XV 41

to be finished by colouring and gilding. The
painter who executed the miniatures on the
ivory of the sticks was not the same man who
painted the leaf, another worker altogether
mounted and folded the finished painting, and
thus the work passed through numerous hands
before it finally reached completion.

Whether the tracery of the sides were really
executed by the painter of the central portion
or not, it is often very delightful in colour. Sub-
dued purples, blues, green, and rose harmonized
by the delicate threads and lines of gold, often
resemble the colour scheme of a Persian manu-
script. Birds of rich plumage, flowers, foliage,
and arabesques— all treated in the rococo style
form the designs ; but they are all so subordinated
to the principal subject that the details are hardly
noticeable unless specially looked for.

The figures in the Louis XV fans as a rule are
smaller than those of earlier times, and the general
handling was less broad, the detail was very
carefully defined, and gold was freely though
discretely used. The costumes of classical figures,
though far from approaching the modern ideal
of accuracy in such matters, made far more
pretentions to historical truth than had earlier
been considered necessary.

Some of the later Louis Quinze fans have the
subject enclosed in a cartouche or frame — the out-
come of a tendency which had been very noticeable
towards the concentration of the main interest

PLATE IV.

French. Louis XV. Chicken skin leaf, painted
in gouache. " Telemarque on the Isle of Calypso."
Stick, pearl ; carved, pierced, and gilt.

M. Duvelleroy.

LOUIS XVI 45

in the middle third of the leaf. It is only possible
to describe the progress of this tendency in a
general way, as there are many exceptions.
It has been noted earlier that the interest of the
early Louis XIV fans was spread over the entire
leaves, the figures were often scattered, and the
chief figures were sometimes placed to one side.
Later, the subject was comprised within a large
oval, of which the lower part was removed owing
to the semicircular shape of the leaf ; later still
the chief subject is comprised in a still smaller
oval, the whole of which is comprised within the
limits of the leaf, the remaining space being
filled with subsidiary matter. (It must be under-
stood that the term " oval " does not mean a
definite line or border.) Later still there is an
absolute division between the subjects and the
background, the former being enclosed in a border,
and the latter being of a totally different kind of
ornament, having no connection with the pictorial
panels.

Subjects painted within borders or cartouches
were not a new thing. Even on seventeenth-
century fan-leaves they are to be found, but then
they were exceptions. When we reach the leaf
of Louis XVI we find that they were the rule ;
a very large majority of these fans having three
subjects, a large one in the centre, flanked by a
smaller one on either side.

The Louis Seize period is represented in England
by the Adam style, and the light and delicate

PLATE V.

French. Fan most delicately painted with a
scene of an embarkation. The subject includes
nineteen figures, each individually treated. The
colouring is rich, mainly blue and mauve. Tone
enriched with reddish crimson draperies. The
stick, pearl ; carved and gilt, and partially painted
red and blue:

M. Duvellewy.

LOUIS XVI 49

treatment so characteristic of all the decoration of
that type was admirably suited for fans. The
painting of the medallions was, in good examples,
very fine and elaborate, the smallest details
being worked out with the utmost delicacy.
The chief panel was generally painted with a
somewhat important figure composition, while
the smaller ovals or rounds are filled with simpler
subjects, sometimes having a bearing on the
principal group, but perhaps more often being
totally unrelated to it. The colouring of these
medallions is generally in a somewhat high key,
the tone being fresh and gay.

The general field of the fan leaf is treated in
marked contrast to the reserves ; the whole scheme
is of feathery lightness, wreaths and festoons of
flowers, trophies, garlands, and so on, are disposed
over the surface, so as not to detract from the
main decoration. The general effect in the best
examples is extremely good, and they are perfect
examples of balance and poise. Others are less
successful, and have a rather muddled appear-
ance, owing to the ground being treated with a
thin wiry ornament, which fails to give the neces-
sary support to the panels, which seem to over-
weight the scheme.

Many of these fans have small medallions
introduced, which are painted en camaieu, generally
blue and white in imitation of Wedgwood's Jasper ;
or perhaps they were inspired by the Sevres copies
of that ware, which were extremely popular.

PLATE VI.

French. Louis XV. Skin leaf, painted in
gouache, with " Telemarque and the Nymphs."
The mount is of pearl, carved and gilt.

M. Duvelleroy.

LOUIS XVI 53

Many of these Louis Seize fans are on silk
grounds of fine weave, which take the colour
most admirably, the pores of the material being
filled in to a considerable extent by the body-
colour almost invariably used. The detail is
every whit as fine as if they were painted on
paper or skin. In fact, the best specimens are
amongst the most minutely finished of any. The
panels are frequently bordered with tiny sequins
of gold and silver. These are so exceedingly
thin that they hardly add anything to the weight,
and do not interfere with the opening and shutting
of the fan ; they are generally sewn on with
extremely fine cotton, much finer than anything
obtainable now.

Painted silk panels are sometimes mounted
on a fine gauze, a combination which has a
charming effect, though appearing rather use-
less when the ostensible purpose of a fan is
considered.

The subjects of the panels are various. Those
that were painted to grace a royal wedding
naturally are adorned with designs showing the
incidents connected with the event and portraits
of the high-contracting parties. As they were
painted as a rule before the actual ceremony
(often being designed as presents to the lady
guests attending the ceremonies) the scenes
depicted are often more in the nature of an
allegory that transcripts of actual fact. Royal
betrothals and christenings were also occasions

PLATE VII.

French, about 1750. Paper leaf, painted with
a pastoral group after the manner of Watteau.
The stick and guard, mot her-o '-pearl ; pierced
and carved, and richly gilt. Subject, a sacri-
ficial scene.

Digby Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Albert
Museum.

LOUIS XVI 57

when fans were acceptable presents, and therefore
these events are also often found immortalized
on fans.

A large class of fans are decorated with scenes
of every-day life. "The Visit," "The Caged
Bird/' "The Christening," "The Promenade,"
" The Offering to Hymen," all afford opportunities
for depicting pleasingly attired persons doing
nothing with the greatest possible pomp and
circumstance. The painters of these fans wielded
a facile pencil, and only too often they have
skilled workmanship, and very little else to
recommend them.

In many of the panels contemporary events
are pictured, and the freaks of fashion and the
foibles of the passing moment can be traced, as
they varied from year to year. Perhaps the
craze that is responsible for more fans than any
other was the invention of balloons. The whole
of France was thrilled by the idea that man
could fly, or at least raise himself free of the
earth, and the heroes of balloon ascents, and
later parachute descents, became popular charac-
ters, whose movements roused public enthusiasm.
There were several balloonists whose doings are
commemorated on fans. The Mongolfier Brothers,
Joseph Michel and Jacque Etienne, are generally
credited with being inventors of balloons. They
were paper manufacturers at Annonay, where
they made their first successful experiments.
Their renown led them to receive the King's

PLATE VIII.

French Fan, 1770. Fetes on the occasion of
the marriage of the Dauphin. Sticks, mother-
o '-pearl, and ivory guards ; ivory pierced and
gilt.

Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

LOUIS XVI 61

command to repeat them at Versailles, and the
ascent of the immense balloon was watched by
the entire Court.

The first descent in a parachute took place
on August 20, 1797, at Paris, and was commemo-
rated on numerous fans, which, although not
generally of the highest quality, have an interest
of their own. The balloon ascents of Messieurs
Charles and Robert in 1783 are also found
pictured on fans ; they are often shown looking
over the edge of the basket, each holding a flag.

Though the leaf with the medallion decoration
is certainly typical of Louis XVI fans, the all-
over form of composition still continued to be
painted in very much the same way as it had
been at an earlier date, save that the accessories
are not of the rococo type, but display the severer
taste, which was acceptable to the beau monde
at the time when they were executed. The
drawing of the figures is less florid, the action
quieter, and the draperies not so voluminous —
in fact, the whole style is more frigid.

Towards the end of the century the quality of
workmanship varies very considerably, much
more so than it did earlier, when almost all fans
showed at least a decent degree of merit. The
late eighteenth-century leaves are often mere
perfunctory transcripts carried out with fatal
facility, but showing little or no thought or effort
on the part of the painter.

During the Directorate and Empire periods

PLATE IX.

Portion of Fan (Plate II) enlarged to three
times (linear) the original size, showing the free
handling employed by the fan painters of this
period. To the right is a portion of a tree trunk,
with wind-blown drapery. In the centre, Pharaoh's
daughter with the infant Moses. The attendant's
head is relieved against a background of distant
foliage. End seventeenth century. French gouache
on skin.

PLATE IX.

CUT VELLUM FANS 65

painting as a decoration for fans was almost
entirely abandoned in favour of sequins and
spangles, though exceptional examples continued
to be made.

Painted Fan Leaves. Italy.

In the early days of folding fans Italy, which
at that time took the lead in all that pertained
to art and culture, was renowned for their manu-
facture and the decoration of the leaves. It was
natural that the beauty-loving country should
have early appreciated the possibilities of charm
which lay in the magic half-circle. The fan in
its different forms had long been domiciled in
Italy, and the early folding fans were merely a
development of a fashion already almost univer-
sally accepted. Therefore quite from the beginning
they were decorated in an elaborate way. The
early fans of mica and cut vellum were extremely
ornate. Naturally, at the present day these fans
are extremely rare, but at the time they were
made they were in the hands of all the ladies
of the different Courts and the wives of the
important citizens. The cut vellum fans continued
long in use, and were sometimes left with reserves
of unpierced skin, on which miniatures were
painted of extreme delicacy ; but on the whole
the beauty of these fans depended on the delicacy
of the tracery which resembled the lace worked
on cut linen, which was then so much used for
ornamenting garments and bed furniture.

PLATE X.

Central group from fan in Plate III, repre-
senting a king and a warrior resting, the latter
drinking from a wine-cup. Subject unknown.
The method of painting is typical of the period,
in which the gradations are produced by a number
of delicate touches, rather than one sweep of
colour. About 1745-55.

PLATE X.

ITALIAN PAINTED FANS 69

During the eighteenth century, when the
chief place as fan makers to the Courts of Europe
passed from Italian to French hands, the painted
fan leaf of France set the model for all others,
and in many Italian fans henceforward French
influence can be traced, but fans continued to
be made in Italy in large numbers, and have
an individuality of their own.

It is perhaps because Italy was during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Mecca
of so many pilgrims bent on the pursuit of pleasure
or the acquisition of learning, that there seems
to have been more self-consciousness among
Italians as to their treasures, both of nature and
art, than was prevalent among other nations.
The number of fans of Italian provenance which
are ornamented either with copies of celebrated
paintings, or with paintings of well-known build-
ings and scenery, far exceeds that of French fans
dealing with similar subjects.

It was, of course, a very easy matter to copy
any of the frescoes or paintings which were at
all suitable in style on to a fan leaf, but it did
not follow that because the original was a fine
work of art that it would therefore make a good
leaf, and many required a certain amount of
rearrangement before they could be used to fill
the required span. Italian painters, however,
seldom went to the lengths that their French
confreres did in building up a patchwork of figures
from different works to form a new composition.

PAINTED FANS

They generally contented themselves with cutting
out portions that could not be adapted, sometimes,
on the other hand, spacing a little further apart
groups and figures when this was necessary.

The earlier copies, as a rule, cover the whole
leaf, very little extraneous matter being intro-
duced. The same subjects appear over and over
again, certain paintings, such as the ever popular
Aurora of Guido, being repeated with slight
variations on numberless fans. These leaves are
painted on either paper or chicken skin, and are
not unfrequently found preserved in portfolios
or albums, having never been mounted. They
are hardly ever signed ; probably they are the
production of a studio or workshop rather than
of an individual artist.

There is another class of fan also dealing with
copies of masterpieces, in which the originals
are still further reduced, and instead of occupying
the whole leaf are enclosed in a framework.
There are, as a rule, three or more subjects on
each fan, and they are symmetrically arranged,
generally a large one in the centre, with smaller
ones each side, or one of fairly important size
occupies the central portion of the leaf, the rest
being filled with trophies and foliage of a con-
ventional character in the classical style. They
are generally exquisitely painted from the point
of view of accuracy and finish, but the general
effect is cold and severe. The constant copying
of other men's work, even if it is of the finest

THE CLASSICAL STYLE 71

description, must in the end have a deadening
effect on the individuality of any craftsman,
and after a time he becomes absolutely incapable
of originating any new idea, but continues year
in year out to work in the same groove. The
hard outline and the tightness of the drawing
makes these fan leaves extremely unsympathetic.
The style, as a matter of fact, was not suited to
its purpose ; compositions designed on a large
scale for the decoration of the walls or ceilings
of palaces do not lend themselves well to reduc-
tion to almost microscopic size ; and while the
subjects were often the same as those selected
by French fan painters, they lack the gaiety of
feeling and grace which can be imparted to even
the most classical and dignified composition, if
the painter has the power of translating rather
than copying.

The groundwork of these fan leaves is filled
in with garlands and arabesques, together with
trophies in the classical style, all carried out in
a hard and unyielding manner.

Very much like these in many ways are the
Pompeian fans, a type which appears to have
been painted by Neapolitan artists. These
leaves have as their principal decoration a copy
of one of the frescoes from the lately disinterred
city of Pompeii. This composition generally
occupies a rectangular panel placed in the centre
of the fan, the remaining space being filled in
with ornamental details of less important char-

PLATE XI.
Italian Fans.

1. Late seventeenth century. Subject : " Storm-
ing of Jerusalem and Healing of Godfrey de
Bouillon's Wound/' Stick, plain ivory ; guards,
pique with silver.

Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

2. Early eighteenth century. Subject : " Rape
of Proserpine." Stick, plain ivory ; guards, pique
with silver.

Wyatt Collection.

Pf.ATE XI.

NEAPOLITAN FANS 75

acter, also copied from the mural decorations
which had been found in the buried cities. The
colouring of these fans is, of course, governed
by that of the originals, and is somewhat heavy,
the principal tones being black, red, and rich
buff, merging to orange, with other colours, such
as a vivid turquoise blue in lesser proportion.

Another type of Neapolitan fan, which was
made in great numbers, consists of a medley of
views of Naples and its environs. These are
arranged in a somewhat haphazard manner on
a vividly coloured background, so as to resemble
a handful of sketches and drawings thrown on
the fan more or less at random. The central
scene is often the Bay of Naples, The Dog's
Grotto, or other celebrated spot, and one of
the side sketches is almost always Vesuvius in
eruption. The painting of these fan leaves is
never of a very high order. They must have
been made in hundreds, and no doubt were
popular presents from the young foreigner making
the " Grand Tour " to his friends at home, as
they were characteristic of the country. A fan
has always been an acceptable gift ever since
the days of Queen Elizabeth, who held them as
one of the most suitable offerings that her subjects
could make. Fans were also sent to Italy from
England. Horace Walpole, writing to Sir Horace
Mann in 1742, mentions having sent a present
of japan and fans to the Princess Craon at Florence.
Probably these were Oriental fans, as the Princess

76 PAINTED FANS

in her letter of gratitude says that " The generosity
of your friendship for me, Sir, leaves me nothing
to desire of all that is precious in England, China,
and the Indies."

Scenery fans in another form are those in
which the decoration of the leaf consists of a
landscape covering the whole leaf, and representing
some celebrated beauty spot or well-known
scene. As a rule the view is treated exactly as
if it were being painted for wall decoration, and
no regard is paid to the contour of the fan ; the
lower border of the leaf simply bites into the
central part of the foreground, leaving only the
side parts available for the introduction of figures
of any size.

The painting of these fans is, as a rule, of a
higher order than the Neapolitan fans described
above. They are generally painted on rather
deep leaves so as to give space for the landscape
to be carried out on a fairly large scale.

At all times Italy has been a goal of numberless
" tourists," and naturally enough they have
desired to take home with them, either as souvenirs
for themselves or as gifts for their friends, objects
characteristic of the country ; no doubt very
many, perhaps the majority, of these fans were
intended to fulfil this demand. This would
account for the endless repetition of hackneyed
subjects which were produced in such numbers
that they could hardly have been absorbed by
the home market.

FAN MAKING IN SPAIN 77

Painted Fan Leaves in Spain.

In general style Spanish fans follow closely
their French contemporaries, and therefore it is
hardly necessary to follow their progress from
period to period. France not only set the fashion,
but also made a large number of fans for the
Spanish market. Italian fans were also imported,
but the former seem to have been the more
highly esteemed. An anecdote is told of Cano
de Arevalo, a minor Spanish painter working at
Madrid towards the close of the seventeenth
century, which confirms this. He was not very
successful when painting in the grand manner, .
and preferred to express himself in small cabinet
pictures. In these he achieved artistic success,
but the pecuniary gains were small. It occurred
to him that fan leaves offered an excellent field
for the display of his particular talent. In order
to obtain the high prices which were readily paid
for imported fans, and knowing by experience
that a prophet lacks honour in his own country,
he had recourse to a strategem. " He shut
himself up all one winter in his house and painted
a quantity of fans, and when the time arrived for
selling them pretended that he had received a
large consignment from Paris. He sold them
all in a very few days. This initial success made
him known, and he applied himself entirely
to this branch of art, in which he was so
successful that the Queen appointed him her

PLATE XII.

Italian Fans.

1. Early eighteenth century, painted by
Lionardo Germo. Subject : " Venus and Adonis."
Stick and guard, tortoiseshell ; engraved, silvered
and gilt. It formerly belonged to Benjamin
West, P.R.A.

Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

2. An Italian Fan of the Neapolitan type,
painted in gouache on chicken skin. The central
panel shows the sulphur springs near Pozzuoli.
" Veduto Generale della Solfettura pre de la
Citte d'Pozzuoli." The landscape is painted in
natural colours, as are also the ruins to right
and left. The former shows Vesuvius in eruption,
on the other a small seascape.

Reverse : A bird on a leafless branch looking
at a fly.

Date : About 1760-70.

The stick is, perhaps, a little earlier ; it is deco-
rated with gold tracery and sprigs of flowers in
lacquer-like colouring. White paste in rivet.

PLATE XII.

FAN MAKING IN SPAIN 81

painter " (G. Quillet, " Dictionnaire des Peintres
Espagnols," Paris, 1816). He died at the age of
forty, being killed in a duel.

After his death the importation of fans
continued, and though fans were — and are —
used most gracefully by Spanish ladies, they
appear to have had a very special affection for
those made in France. It is quite natural that
it should be so. The fan maker's art and craft
is a very skilled one, requiring a great deal more
than the artistic taste necessary for the composing
and colouring of the leaf. The carving of the
sticks and the mounting and folding of the leaf
after the artist has completed his share of the
work, are tasks that even now, with all the aid
that modern tools and appliances can give, require
a long apprenticeship before they can be success-
fully undertaken. In those days the trade was,
as now, an exceptionally skilled one, and I venture
to say that if Cano de Arevalo had attempted
to make the fans instead of ornamenting them,
he would very soon have found that he had set
himself an impossible task. What he probably
did was to import the fans with a blank leaf
already mounted, on which he executed his
designs. This is much more difficult than
painting on a leaf properly prepared and stretched,
but it was the only way open to him, as obviously
it would have been impossible for him to carry
out the mounting himself ; and even if there
were any Spanish workmen at that time capable

PLATE XIII.
English Fans.

1. Gouache on paper, painted with a bouquet
and two sprays of flowers. The colouring very
much resembles the designs for Spitalfields silks
preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The other side a landscape, a lake, with a distant
view of a castle and wooded scenery.

Stick of painted ivory, backed by gold foil
in the guards. Button, mother-o '-pearl. Date
about 1746.

2. Early eighteenth-century Fan. Paper leaf,
painted with a pastoral group ; the stick and
guards, ivory ; carved, pierced, and coloured with
subjects of figures and flowers.

Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

PLATE XIII.
83

SPANISH IVORY WORKERS 85

of executing the high-class work requisite to
deceive the connoisseurs of the Court, his secret
would certainly have become known and his
plans frustrated.

As to the probability of ivory sticks being carved
in Spain, this seems extremely unlikely, as during
the Golden Age of the fan there seem to have
existed no workmen capable of undertaking such
work, as appears from the following quotation
from Sefior Juan F. Riafio's book " The Industrial
Arts of Spain," 1879 (Chapman and Hall, South
Kensington Handbook) : " Notwithstanding, how-
ever, the numerous examples of ivory carvings
which a*e still to be met with in Spanish churches
and cathedrals, I find no information which
enables us to affirm that this artistic industry
existed in Spain during the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries. We find artists men-
tioned who carved in wood, iron, and silver
work, and numerous details of their work, but
ivory carvers are never mentioned ; if any existed,
their numbers must have been comparatively
small, and I am led, therefore, to suppose that
the specimens existing in Spain were imported
from Italy and France, and for this reason it is
necessary to end at the Renaissance the history
of ivory carving in Spain."

But though it is probable that most of the
eighteenth-century fans described as Spanish are,
as a matter of fact, French (those that is that
reach a really high standard), they were executed

86 PAINTED FANS

in a special way to suit the Spanish taste, the
subjects were of the same class as those favoured
in France, consisting of Biblical, classical, and his-
torical scenes, but the colouring is richer, almost
Oriental in style. The special variety which is
considered to have been most highly favoured
in Spain is the " Battoir " fan, which has a narrow
leaf, often painted with numerous subjects in
small medallions, and mounted on a richly orna-
mented stick, with very few brins (seldom more
than eight), of a very remarkable shape, being
broadened in parts almost to the semblance of
a figure eight. The guards also are necessarily
very broad in order to accommodate the width
of the folds, which being so few in number are,
of course, much broader than in the ordinary
fan. These fans are always of an important
character, being very richly decorated. If such
fans were made in Spain, there was no reason
for the large importation of French fans, as they
show considerable skill.

Paintings of scenes in the bull-ring are, of
course, very characteristic, and from about
the middle of the eighteenth century had an
increasing vogue, though the greater number
of those extant are not earlier than the end
of the eighteenth century. Many of these are
undoubtedly of Spanish workmanship. The
drawing of the figure is more robust than in
contemporary French work, while there is less
finesse and judgment in the placing of the orna-

WALKER COLLECTION 87

ment as a rule. There is about many of them a
knowledge of the characteristic types and an
enthusiasm for the " sport " that it is not likely
a foreigner could assume.

English Painted Fans.

It appears that there were few fans made in
England before the close of the seventeenth
century. There may have been some made, or
at all events some leaves painted here before
that date, and in the Walker Sale, 1884, two
were definitely catalogued as being of the time
of Charles II. The description is of interest,
though from it a diagnosis of a French origin,
possibly of a later date, would appear probable.

" 262. A Fan. Stout skin mount. Subject :
' An Ancient Marriage/ The Bride wearing a
coronet of flowers attended by beautiful girls
bearing a distaff and flowers ; the bridegroom
presenting the ring ; background of architecture,
and gold diaper border, with triangular panels
of Chinese ornament. The whole very highly
finished. Stick ivory carved with emblematic
figures, and inlaid mother-o'-pearl and silver
pique/'

" 263. A Fan. Stout skin mount. Subject :
' Achilles and Deidamia/ by the same hand.
As Troy could not be taken without the
aid of Achilles, Ulysses went to the Court
of Lycomedes in the habit of a merchant and

S8 PAINTED FANS

exposed jewels and arms for sale. Achilles, choos-
ing the arms, displayed his sex and went to war.
" Uly»ses is here standing in front offering a
mirror to Deidamia, who holds in her hand a
•u II in of pearls, and with the other she points
to Achilles in an attitude of alarm, 20 lie is grasping
the sword and buckler. To the right a camel
is being unladen by two stalwart slaves. On
the left the wife and other daughters of Lycom<
and a background of architectare. The com-
fine and very highly fink;

mother-o'-pearl, carved with subjects emblematic
of the marriage of Lotris XIV, and enriched with
variegated gold ornaments. On the reverse, also
a skin mount, the subject is a view of St. Cloud,
the fountain in the foreground falling into an
**"*^fra»a1 basin, an avenue of trees leading to
the palace, and personages promenading, the
whole most minute in detail, and probably painted
by Hollar.

remarkable examples must have been
for important Court personages, probably
Louise Renee de QueroneHe, Ducfae** of Ports-
mouth ; the subject of the reverse suggests thb

IB any case, these were certainly made, if not
in France, by French workpeople foiknring in
ffce train of the French favourite to the
Court, as obiioiMlf tibe wbole ntffaracf If

Thcmgb die taade was in tbe seventeenth

90 PAINTED FANS

" A writer in the Westminster Journal for
February 23, 1751, proposes a tax upon plain
and printed mounts. Printed ones not coloured
to pass free as before. A sixpenny stamp to be
affixed in the midst of a plain or printed paper
fan mount, and a shilling stamp on a leather
one. This may produce a revenue of ten, twenty,
or thirty thousand pounds per annum, encourage
a very ingenious branch of business, and only
hurt about half a dozen paltry plate printers
who are enriching themselves and starving
hundreds."

» So that obviously there must have been a
very large number of painters who earned their
living by the painting of fans, if " hundreds "
were put out of work by the printed leaves.

But the competition of home-printed leaves
appears on the whole to have been the least serious
trouble which faced the trade. French and
Oriental fans were largely imported. Not only
the complete article, but sticks ready for mounts
were brought in, and different statutes against
these deadly rivals were invoked (see Chapter
VI, p. 261).

In 1752 it was stated in an advertisement in
the Daily Advertiser (quoted in the Gentleman's
Magazine) that there were nearly a thousand
" poor unfortunate artificers in the several
branches of the fan trade/' " The home-made
fans," it says, " are in every way preferable to
foreign ; and that by encouraging the latter,

EARLY ENGLISH LEAVES 91

they will relieve a number of unfortunate families
from the most grievous distress and despair."

The style of English fan painting would pretty
obviously be modelled on the much-prized French
and Italian originals, and possibly some of the
more successful are considered to be by artists
of those nationalities, because there are compara-
tively few fans of the early years of the eighteenth
century which can definitely be said to be of
English origin. Those that can be identified as
such vary a good deal in character. The type
of handling is heavy and rather crude, the colours
thickly applied, and the details added in a
" liney " manner. A fan in a private collection
shows a scene at the Court of Queen Anne. Her
Majesty is seated beneath a richly adorned
canopy, with her ladies grouped to the right ;
on the left of the dais are several peers and a
bishop ; a young page or official presents a book
on a cushion ; the curtains to the right part
showing clouds in which appear the head and
shoulders of a cupid bearing a wreath. The
circumstance represented is unknown. The rich
almost Oriental quality of the colour render the
rather childish grouping and stiff action of the
figures less noticeable than they would otherwise
be, but the whole leaf lacks the expert treatment
which distinguishes even the least admirable of
the French fans of this time.

Another fan in the Schreiber Collection is rather
later, but resembles it in many points.

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GOUPY

Superior in execution, but dull in colour and
rather uninteresting, is a painting on a leaf in
the same collection. It is, however, of import-
ance because signed by an artist of whom some-
thing is known. This fan leaf is painted with
three views of ruins in Rome. The centre portion
shows the Arch of Constantine, and at the sides
are the Arch of Titus and the Forum ; the body
of the fan is filled with delicate classical grotesques
and borders. The signature is that of " Jose
Goupy, 1738, N.A." This painter was very
fashionable in his day, both for his water-colour
drawings and his fans. This leaf, like many
others attributed to him, is really a tinted drawing,
carried out, as were so many water colours of
that time, mainly in Indian ink, partly pen
work and partly wash ; the result is dull in colour,
but full of delicate detail. The colour is a minor
consideration, and consists chiefly of washes over
the ink. The style of the arrangement resembles
very closely the Italian fans, which were so
popular during the eighteenth century, but their
colour is far fresher and brighter ; they are also
carried out in gouache — often on skin, though
sometimes on paper — while Goupy in this signed
example, and probably as a general rule, worked
in water colour on paper. It appears to be
rather the work of a skilled draughtsman in
water colour, displaying his talents on a fan leaf,
than entirely typical of English fans of the day.
An English fan which I possess of about the

94 PAINTED FANS

same period is painted in gouache on paper.
The principal side has a rather uninteresting
landscape in bright colours. The reverse has a
bunch of flowers, roses, tulips, and hyacinths
tied with a blue ribbon bow. It is quite a simple
fan, but is interesting because the colouring of
the flower painting so nearly resembles that of
the silk designs used by the Huguenot silk
weavers of Spitalfields.

Another fan of this period painted in gouache
on skin shows a group in the centre representing
apparently a theatrical scene : A lady and gentle-
man are reclining on a grassy bank, while another
figure is seen watching from behind some shrubby
growth. He is apparently a rival, and holds a
dagger in a menacing attitude ; he is unconscious
that his movements are in turn dogged by two
others, dressed like servants, who point to him.
The scene is contained in a cartouche-shaped
space, but there is no actual border. The rest
of the leaf is filled with foliage and fruit treated
on a very large scale, and apparently simply
heaped pell-mell to utilize the spare space. There
is no sense of composition in the arrangement,
which seems a well-meant attempt to adapt the
idea of a French fan by a painter who had not
the necessary qualifications. Obviously, if paint-
ings of this calibre were the best that the English
fan makers of the middle of the eighteenth century
could offer in competition with the French fan,
then at the zenith of its perfection as regards

ENGLISH FANS 95

delicacy of execution and perfection of crafts-
manship, it is small wonder that the trade declined ;
and that while the cheap printed fans of English
design and printing were eminently satisfactory,
as simple adjuncts to a morning toilet, for
Court and full-dress use, where a hand-painted
leaf was preferable, the imported rivals were
purchased, in spite of appeals to the charitable
and the invocation of half-forgotten statutes.

For some years the art of fan painting slumbered
in England, and few fans are to be found which
can be identified as belonging to the years 1750-
70. That fans were painted, and well painted
in England during this period appears from a
reference in Horace Walpole's letters, January 27,
1761, in which he mentions sending to Sir Horace
Mann in Florence " Six of the newest fashioned
and prettiest fans I could find. They are really
genteel, though one or two have caprices that
will turn a Florentine head.1' On another occa-
sion (1752) he refers to an anecdote about Lady
Coventry's fan, but that was painted earlier.
" The Marechale de Lowendahl was pleased with
an English fan Lady Coventry had, who very
civilly gave it her : my lord made her write for
it again next morning, ' because he had given it
her before marriage, and her parting with it would
make an irreparable breach,' and send an old
one in the room of it."

The fans of the last quarter of the eighteenth
century differ in many ways from their pre-

96 PAINTED FANS

decessors. Instead of the principal side being
painted with one scene covering the whole leaf
with the aid of its accessories, the whole
interest was now divided between three different
subjects, each in a medallion or cartouche. The
fashion may be ultimately traced back to Italy,
but appears to have reached this country via
France, where a similar arrangement was fashion-
able. Among the Italian artists and crafts-
men that the renewed craze for the classical
in architecture and art, fostered by the work of
the Brothers Adam, had caused to flock to this
country there were, however, undoubtedly some
who painted fans. Poggi was the principal of
these, and he had a decided vogue. He held an
exhibition in 1781, to which Sir Joshua Reynolds
took " Little Burney."

" Tuesday. I passed the whole day at Sir
Joshua Reynolds, with Miss Palmer, who in the
morning took me to see some beautiful fans
painted by Poggi, from designs of Sir Joshua,
Angelica, West, and Cipriani, on leather. They
are, indeed, more delightful than can well be
imagined ; one was bespoke by the Duchess of
Devonshire for a present to some woman of rank
in France, that was to cost £40."

Some of these fans and the original designs
by Angelica Kauffmann, Bartolozzi, West, and
Cipriani were sold at Christie's in the following
year. At the same sale was sold the original
drawing by Angelica Kauffmann for a printed

ENGLISH FANS 97

fan in honour of Alexander Pope, which is
described in the sale catalogue as : ' The Bust
of Pope crowned by the Graces, who are admiring
the beauty of his work." It was published in
several forms in stipple and line engraving.

The painting of English fans of the last quarter
of the century is often very painstakingly
finished, and to a certain extent well designed
and executed. The chief faults are that the
ornament is conceived on too small a scale, and
is thin and wiry, in contrast to the best French
examples, which, while light and airy in effect,
fill the space. The subjects in the medallions,
too, are frequently too minute, and the whole
too precise and tight in execution.

They appear to have been made for very good,
correct, and well-behaved owners. Probably those
who surrounded the Prince obtained their fans
from France !

Many spangles were used in conjunction with
painting, especially where the ground was of
silk, which was a very favourite material at this
period. Inlets of lace and gauze were also
being introduced, and those of the latter material
were often painted with floral emblems, musical
instruments, and so on.

The body colour used at this time is often
very chalky in effect ; whether this is due to the
material not being sufficiently ground, or the use
of inferior medium, is uncertain.

The use of painted fans continued for some

PLATE XIV.

German and Dutch Fans.

1. Dutch Fan. Leaf painted on skin with
pastoral subject. Early eighteenth century.

M. Duvelleroy.

2. German Fan. Chicken skin leaf painted
with Bacchus and Ariadne. Guards and sticks,
mother-o'-pearl ; carved, painted, and gilt. Early
eighteenth century.

Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum.

PLATE XIV.
99

ENGLISH FANS 101

time in England after they were superseded by
coarser varieties in France, and fine French
examples of older periods were brought with
them by the French emigres, and were much
appreciated here. They do not, however, seem
to have had any influence on the type of design
in vogue, and the three-medallion scheme con-
trived to be monotonously the vogue until it was
succeeded by the fashion for fans of silk or gauze
merely decorated with spangles.

PRINTED

FAN LEAVES OF

ENGLAND,

FRANCE,

AND OTHER

EUROPEAN

COUNTRIES

PRINTED FAX LEAVES

106 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

As the majority of the expensive fans of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were of the
hand-screen type, of course it naturally follows
that the cheaper kind of fan intended for ordinary
use by ordinary people followed the lead of
their aristocratic brethren, though the highly
finished miniatures and rich decorations made
the vellum or chicken skin fan a treasured object
to be used with dignity and treated with the
elaborate ceremony of Court etiquette, while
the printed papers that replaced them for every-
day use were trifles of little account and small
price, made to serve the purpose of a few days'
or hours' use, and then to be replaced by a fresh
new leaf of another kind. Coryat, in his
" Crudities/' tells us how they managed things
in Italy in his day. In his inimitable fashion
he notes the habits of the Italians, and is quick
to seize on any outstanding feature wherein the
foreign custom differed from that of England.
It therefore seems clear that when the following
description was penned the cheap engraved fan
leaves were not in use here, at least not to any
great extent. Of course, in Elizabeth's day the
great plumed fan was an item of personal adorn-
ment, which held an important place among all
ladies of high degree. It was clearly the use of
fans by the plain citizens which struck his obser-
vant eye as being interesting, even if " frivolous."

" Here I will mention a thing that, although
perhaps it will seem frivolous to divers readers

THE SCREEN TYPE 107

that have already travelled in Italy, yet because
unto many that neither have been there, nor
ever intend to go thither while they live, it will
be a mere novelty, I will not let it passe unmen-
tioned. The first Italian fannes that I saw in
Italy did I observe in that space between Pizigh-
iton and Cremona ; but afterwards I observed
them common in most places in Italy where I
travelled. These fannes both men and women
of the country do carry, to coole themselves
withal in the time of heat by often fanning of
their faces. Most of them are very elegant and
pretty things. For whereas the fanne consist eth
of a painted piece of paper and a little wooden
handle ; the paper which is fastened into the
top, is on both sides most curiously adorned with
excellent pictures, either of serious things tending
to dalliance having some witty Italian verses or
fine emblems written under them ; or of some
notable Italian city, with a brief description
thereof added there unto. These fannes are of
a mean price, for a man may buy one of the
fayrest of them for so much money as counter-
vaileth one English groat."

The idea of topographical ornamentation is
one to which the Italians were specially prone,
and it long continued in fashion ; there are
numerous examples of fans dating from the
eighteenth century which show scenes from a
city or celebrated spots with " brief descriptions."
Probably the fans noted by Coryat were, as a

108 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

matter of fact, printed, not painted. Even in
those days a " groat " would hardly purchase
so elaborately decorated a leaf if all were done
by hand. They were almost certainly engravings
or etchings, perhaps coloured by hand in the
manner which was so very usual during the
eighteenth century and earlier.

Some of these or similar leaves have been
preserved and are valued, not only by fan collectors,
but by collectors of engravings. Specimens are
amongst the rarities, and while it is, of course,
quite possible that copies of some of the many
varieties which existed may yet be unearthed,
they were obviously of ephemeral character, and
would only be preserved by some happy accident
or chance.

Among the French unmounted fan leaves in
the Schreiber Collection is a copy by N. Cochin
the Elder of a screen fan engraving by Stefano
della Bella, which, though altered and amplified,
gives a good idea of the Italian original. French
engravers were rightly celebrated for these
attractive leaves. Jacques Callot, the eminent
engraver, produced several of them, of which
examples may be seen in the British Museum.
One of these represents a f£te on the Arno at
Florence, which took the form of a mock battle
or tournament, in which the Company of the
Weavers pitted themselves against the Dyers.
The inscription runs : " Battaglia Del Re Tessi
e Del Re Tinta Festa Rapresentata In Firenze

HAND SCREENS 109

Nel Fiume D'Arno II Di XXV Di Luglio, 1619."
For a description of this etching see Meaume,
" Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Jacques
Callot," vol. ii. p. 287, No. 617. Nicolas Cochin
the Elder is responsible for a handscreen with
the subject of the triumphant return of David
after slaying Goliath, the title inscribed is :
" Le thrionfe de dauid. Balthazar Moncornet
ex Gum privilegio a paris." The frame is copied
from Callot's Florentine Fete described above.

A German example of a paper leaf of a somewhat
similar kind is to be found among the Schreiber
unmounted leaves. It is signed " Christoph
FridD Horman, sculp." It is number three of
a set of four, which represent ballet dancers.
Each shows a dancer in fancy costume, and a
musician, male or female, playing an instrument.
This series, however, is later than those described
above, though it carries out the same idea.
Among Agostino Caracci's engravings is a design
for a fan which is interesting, as it shows us a
type of which no perfect example has survived.
This fan has no real separate handle, but consists
of a semicircle of feathers secured in a broad
mount decorated with medallions of Diana and
nymphs and satyrs. The mount most likely was
intended to be carried out in carved ivory, or
possibly in repoussee silver, with perhaps cameos
in the medallions. If it were ever produced, it
must have been a gorgeous and stately fan.

Though a certain number of the earlier leaves

110 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

survive, by far the greater part of those which
exist in collections at the present day date from
the eighteenth century. They were then im-
mensely popular, as fans were universally carried,
and these cheap and simple leaves had many
advantages.

They made it possible to be quite up to date
at very small expense. A new fan leaf hot from
the press was easily mounted, and its decorations
bearing on some topical subject beguiled a dull
moment, or formed a topic of conversation.
Then, too, they were decidedly cheap, two shillings
being a very general price for the unmounted
leaf, so that it was easy to change them as often
as was desired. The variety was enormous.
There were classical subjects, Biblical subjects,
theatrical scenes, moral fans — Amoral fans also.

The most celebrated collection of these printed
fans is, of course, that which belonged to Lady
Charlotte Schreiber. It contains hundreds of
printed fan leaves mounted and unmounted, but
so great is the variety of these trifles that it is
quite easy to find other prints, copies of which
are not included in her collection, and thousands
of varieties must have been issued.

Each country had, of course, patterns suited
to the special tastes of its inhabitants. Many of
the Italian fans have views of celebrated places
and reproductions of well-known pictures, thus
carrying out in a cheaper form the type of design
favoured by the painters of expensive fans. There

GENERAL NOTES 111

are several examples in the Schreiber Collection
of these fans, one of " Apollo and the Muses,"
after the picture in the Pitti Palace at Florence
by Giulio Romano. Another, with the subject
" Aurora," is taken from the fresco by Guercino
in the Villa Ludovisi at Rome. These are both
etchings coloured by hand. I have one decorated
in a similar may with Guide's treatment of the
same subject. A curious Italian printed fan
leaf is entitled : "II Paese del Matrimonio."
Cupid stands in the centre inviting maidens to
embark for the land of matrimony. On either
side maps of imaginary countries, the " Paese
del Matrimonio " and the " Terra del Celibato,"
with various symbolical names.

The number of French printed fans is enormous,
particularly those of a political cast. Of those
dealing with Napoleon alone there are said to be
nearly a thousand. Earlier in the eighteenth
century they do not appear to have been quite
so numerous as they were in England — possibly
hand-printed fans were more easily obtained in
the country of their origin than over here. The
earliest prints in France were from etched plates
coloured by hand, and show no superiority to
our native product as to the leaves ; but the
sticks on which they are mounted are sometimes
of a rather more decorative character, though,
as a rule, they have plain ivory or wooden
mounts.

An extremely popular subject was the well-

112 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

known song " Malbrouk," in some instances
giving the whole thirty-one verses with music
and illustrations ; in others only a few incidents.
Exactly why this ditty had such an extreme
vogue it is hard to say, but certainly some of the
scenes as treated on these fan leaves are very
droll.

Madame eagerly watches for tidings on her
tower with a pre-historic telescope.

Madame a sa tour monte
Si haut qu'elle peut monter.

And the nightingale " musical and melan-
choly " is not forgotten, but is shown in detail.

Sur la plus haute branche
Le rossignol chanta.

The favourite scenes for illustration are the
" funeral," in which the body is borne on a bier
by weeping soldiers, or is shown on a catafalque
guarded by sentries at each corner : " Madame
on the Tower," and " The Tomb."

The Malbrouk craze was one of a series of
fancies which one after another captured the
general public, and they are all displayed on a
leaf called " Une Folie Chasse L'Autre," which
shows how each fashion is displayed by the
succeeding novelty. Here the Bilboquet (cup
and ball), the Pantin (mannikin worked by
strings), Ramponeau the tavern-keeper, with a
jug of beer, and others, are driven away by

IN FRANCE 113

" Malbrouk," who is shown as a general issuing
from his tent.

The verses given below are printed on either
side : —

Un rien suffit pour nous seduire
La nouveautS par son at^rait
Nous enflame jusqu'au delire

Nous fait en rire on a tout fait
Et chez notre nation volage
Malbrouk est le H6ros du jour
Chacun a son Tour
C'est notre usage
Chacun & son Tour.

Au Bilbouquet Pantin succede

Pantin fuit devant Ramponeau
L'E16gant Ramponeau ne cede
Que pour faire place a Janot
La Folie qui nous guide a tout ange
Amene Malbrouk en ce jour.
Chacun a son Tour
C'est notre usage
Chacun a son Tour.

Then the balloon ascents of MM. Charles and
Robert in 1783 and of Mons. Blanchard hit the
somewhat fickle fancy of the public, and to be
in the mode the leaf had to be decorated with
representations of a balloon, and one or other of
the intrepid aeronauts. There are at least ten
varieties of these fans, very probably more.
The Schreiber Collection has four. One repre-
sents the departure of M. Charles and M. Robert
in their balloon in 1783. One of them is in the
car of the balloon, the other converses with a
group of spectators. On the right is a group of
four persons, including two members of the

114 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

Royal Family. On the other side are verses
and music.

M. Blanchard is shown in another in his balloon
with four rudders. The inscription runs : "La
Phisico Mecanique Ou le Vausseau Volant de
M. Blanchard. Air. de la Meuniere."

On a fan in a private collection Blanchard is
represented in the central medallion in the car
of his balloon looking down on a crowd of inter-
ested spectators, who wave their hats. In the
minor medallions he is shown receiving a laurel
wreath from a female figure emblematic of Fame,
in the other a distant view of the balloon is
shown with a background of stars.

Another in the same collection has a balloon in
the centre, probably Blanchard's, as it has rudders,
and underneath " Vive la Physique/' There are
verses in praise of the conquest of the air couched
in very flowery language, and prophesying that
soon all the world would journey by air instead
of coach, a prophecy made in 1783, and which
yet remains unfulfilled.

All the balloon fans are of the etched type,
roughly coloured by hand.

There are very many fans dealing with events
of the reign of Louis XVI, and with scenes of the
Revolution, which have considerable interest.
The birth of the Dauphin in 1781 caused much
rejoicing, and was commemorated by the issue
of fan leaves. The inscriptions read ironically,
when one remembers the sad fate awaiting him.

LOUIS XVI 115

" Le Dauphin presente par rimmortalite, la France
saisie d'admiration offre pour hommage a son
Prince cheri les cceurs unis et repectueuse de
ses fidele sujets."

The Assembly of the Notables in 1787 was
commemorated on several fans, both hand-painted
and printed, and in the Schreiber Collection two
are preserved ; others deal with Necker's regime,
Les Etats Generaux, Les Dons Patriotiques,
1789 (aquatint), and other incidents.

Most curious it seems that the taking of the
Bastille, with its tragic concomitants, should have
served as the subject for many fans.

Then comes the era of " Liberte, Equalite,
Fraternite," which forms the theme of several
fans, mostly etched and hand-coloured, and
mounted on plain wooden sticks, though a few
are carried out in aquatint engraving, or stipple
engraving.

Royalists, however, were still catered for. An
example was printed on silk and mounted on
spangled gauze ; portraits of Louis XVI, and
Marie Antoinette, and the motto worked in spangles
on a violet ground, " Lache qui t'abandonne."
This is a somewhat elaborate fan. One of a more
popular type is the " Testament de Louis XVI,"
with the portrait of the King in the centre, with
those of his son and daughter to right and left
(stipple engraving). There was a risk in carrying
such fans, and for those who did not venture so
far such fans as " Le Songe " were produced. It

PLATE XV.

English Fan. Paper leaf. " A New Game of
Piquet now in Play among different Nations in
Europe." Ten female figures, representing
France, Spain, Sardinia, the Empire of Saxony,
Russia, Poland, Britannia, Holland, Prussia, are
seated round a table, all, excepting the last three,
taking part in a game of piquet. On the left
stands the Pope, Innocent XI, declining to take
part in the game, though his chair is really at
the table. Towards the right stands a man in
black civilian clothes, commenting on the game,
and on the extreme right are the Sultan of
Turkey on horseback and Shah of Persia.
Attached to each figure is a motto in manuscript,
denoting the part taken in the game ; and above,
in manuscript, the title as given above. This
fan alludes to the intrigues of European diplo-
macy concerning the affairs of Poland. Schreiber
Collection. Date, about the end of the seven-
teenth century. This appears to be the earliest
English painted fan leaf. It is printed from an
etched plate, and coloured by hand. The sticks
are plain ivory, with tortoiseshell handles. The
original case of shagreen has been preserved with
this fan.

Schreiber Collection.

116

117

GAMBLE'S FANS 119

represents a woman sleeping by a tomb dreaming
of Louis XVI. Over his figure is pasted a piece
of paper, so that it only appears when looked at
against a light.

The Napoleonic regime is illustrated by numerous
fans, mainly in glorification of the mighty con-
queror of Europe. M. Henri Bouchot states that
in one year over a hundred were issued.

English Printed Fan Leaves.

These form a very numerous class, and are
naturally the most easily obtainable for English
collectors. A very interesting feature of many
of the fans is that they bear the dates of their
issue and the name of their publishers, in accord-
ance with the provisions of the Act of 1735. The
fact that some of them are undated, in spite of
this law, may very likely be due to the fact that
these details were generally printed on the lower
part of the mount, and were easily cut off in fitting
the leaf to the sticks.

A great number of these fans appear to have
been published by Gamble at the sign of the
Golden Fan, about the middle of the eighteenth
century. He was a great believer in the advan-
tages of publicity, and constantly advertised in
the Oraftsman.

The sticks of No. I, Plate XVII, are very quaint.
The guards resemble a sea-monster, with the eye
formed by the rivet ; and evidently the subject
of the play, from which a scene is represented,

120 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

is of a nautical character, as, instead of the usual
flowers, the figures are surrounded with water-
fowl.

Probably a little earlier is No. i, Plate XXXI.
At first sight this appears to be a Chinese fan, but
a closer examination proves that that is not the
case. The paper is English, and the design, though
evidently based on an Oriental model, has not
assimilated the true character of the original.
It is roughly hand-coloured in tints of yellow and
brown, and the general effect is quite good. At
about this time imitations of all kinds of Chinese
decorative art were fashionable. Ladies amused
themselves with copying lacquer-ware, while
architects and cabinet makers were busy with
designs which, if not really Chinese, were as near
it as they could evolve out of their inner conscious-
ness, and from European kilns issued products
which resembled the precious porcelains of the
Celestial Empire. Some of the Chinese-style
English printed fans are coloured in a far daintier
way than the majority of the theatrical fans.

They had such a vogue that they were used
to commemorate events both political and domestic.
Of the latter, the fan which has handed down to
posterity the memory of Mr. Thomas Osborne's
Duck Hunting (1754) (No. i, Plate XVI) gives, in
conjunction with the manuscript account preserved
with it, an intimate picture of a certain phase of
eighteenth-century society. The fan is of the
ordinary type — an etched leaf, coloured by hand,

TOMMY OSBORNE'S DUCK HUNTING 121

and mounted on wooden sticks. Of the circum-
stances under which it was issued the following
amusing account is given by a daughter of the
original owner : —

" Mr. Thomas Osborne, or, as he was more com-
monly called, Tommy Osborne, was a very con-
siderable bookseller and publisher in Gray's Inn,
Holborn. He bought the Harleian collection of
printed books, and published a sale catalogue. Dr.
Samuel Johnson has been said to be the compiler
of the catalogue. In 1754 he had a house at
Hampstead, which was then a watering-place. A
Captain Pratten constituted himself Master of the
Ceremonies at the Assembly Rooms. Amongst
the fixed residents was Mr. Scarlet, a celebrated
optician. Captain Pratten was more particular
in his attentions to Mrs. Scarlet than to any other
lady, and was her inseparable companion in her
walks and visits. As Mrs. Scarlet was remark-
ably plain in her person, the voice of scandal
declared that this attention was repaid by the
use of her purse. When Mr. Osborne settled
himself in his new house, Captain Pratten proposed
to him that he should ingratiate himself with the
families of Hampstead by giving a public breakfast
for the ladies, and a duck hunting for the
gentlemen.

r' Tommy Osborne, though very successful in
business, was not esteemed very acute in private,
and fell into the scheme, and left the whole manage-
ment to Captain Pratten. Invitations were sent

PLATE XVI.

English Printed Fans.

1. Mr. Thomas Osborne's Duck Hunting, 1754.
Engraved on both sides. On one a view of the
house of Mr. Thomas Osborne, publisher and
bookseller at Hampstead, with a dancing tent
and band ; and on the other a bird's-eye view of
the gardens, with a duck hunt, and the guests
assembled on the occasion of Mr. Osborne's
settling into his new house on September 10,
1754, when he gave a public breakfast to the
ladies and a duck hunting for the gentlemen.
(This is a souvenir fan presented to the lady guests.)

Etchings coloured by hand, mounted on plain
wooden sticks.

2. The New Dance Fan, 1797. In the centre
an oval medallion, with three figures dancing,
with the names and music of sixteen dances.
Published by the Proprietor November i, 1796.
This is a stipple engraving mounted on plain
wooden sticks.

3. Fanology, or the Ladies' Conversation Fan.
" This Fan improves the friendship, and sets
forth a plan For Ladies to Chit Chat and hold
the Tongue."

A fan, which by means of an elaborate code
enabled a confederate who would interpret them
by means of a similar fan. This has a Chinese
stick, of a kind which was imported in large
quantities into England, and which seriously
crippled the native industry.

Schreiber Collection.

122

PLATE XVI.
123

ENGLISH PRINTED LEAVES 125

to all the genteel families in the place, and
marquees erected for the breakfast, and ducks
were provided for the hunting. The company
assembled, and were so happy that they were
loath to depart. Captain Pratten was every-
where, and, finding things went so merrily, sug-
gested to Mr. Osborne that he had better continue
the entertainment with a cold collation. Still
the company lingered, and Captain Pratten and
Mrs. Scarlet circulated in whispers that if they
stayed they would have a dance to conclude
the day. The company took the hint, smiling
at their host's vanity and expense. The long
dancing tent was put up in the courtyard, and
the younger part of the company tripped the
light fantastic toe till bedtime. To prolong the
memory of this day of enjoyment, Captain
Pratten further persuaded Mr. Osborne to have
a fan engraved and presented to each of his lady
visitors."

Poor Tommy Osborne ! One feels sorry for his
simplicity. Even on the commemorative fan to
celebrate his duck-hunting it is not his figure
that appears in the foreground, but that of the
redoubtable Captain Pratten, accompanied by
Mrs. Scarlet and her daughter.

The date, where it exists, is doubly interesting, as
it enables us not only to fix the period of the actual
fan on which it is inscribed, but also is a guide
to others of similar character. Take the fans Nos.
I and 2, Plate XVII, for example. No. 2 only

PLATE XVII.
Printed Fans.

1. A Theatrical Fan. The leaf is printed from
an etched plate and coloured by hand, here and
there are touches of gilt. The subject is not
known, and is difficult to identify, as it might
represent a scene from almost any comedy of
the period. About 1735-45. The stick seems
particularly suitable to the leaf. When closed
it is seen to represent a marine monster, the
button of the rivet forming the eye, the body
being serpentine, finishing at the shoulders with
a fish's tail.

2. Etched and hand-coloured fan, with the
imprint : " M. Gamble, according to the late
Act. August 24, 1742." Meeting of Romeo and
Juliet. Juliet is accompanied by the Nurse,
and followed by a small negro page. Romeo is
with the Friar. The colours are roughly applied,
but they are harmonious and pleasing in effect.
The central portion is touched here and there
with gold paint. Mother-o '-pearl button.

126

PLATE XVII.
127

OPERA FANS 129

is dated, but the similarity of paper, etc., makes
it almost certain that they were both issued by
the same publisher at about the same time. The
inscription on No. 2 reads : " M. Gamble, accord-
ing to the Act, Aug. 24, 1742." The scene
has been identified as being from Romeo and
Juliet, the figures on the left being Juliet and
the Nurse, Romeo and the Friar occupying the
right-hand side. The outline and shading are
etched, and the whole is very roughly hand-
coloured, with touches of gold here and there.
The sticks are of ivory, and it seems strange that
such a very rough-and-ready treatment as to
colour should be considered good enough ; but
nearly all these etched leaves are tinted in the
same perfunctory way. The painting was added
by girls, each of whom put in one colour. They
sat round a table, and passed the work on from
hand to hand.

Other very interesting fans are those which
record the arrangement of the boxes and seats
at the opera. These plans must have been very
convenient, not only for the " somebodies " who
wished to know where to look for their friends,
but to the " nobodies " and country cousins,
who were thus enabled to identify the brilliant
figures in the audience, which they often found
more interesting than the performance on the
stage.

For those who were ignorant of the figures of
the dances then in vogue, the fans, with full

PLATE XVIII.

A portion of Fan 2 on Plate XVII, showing
the rough way the colour was applied to the
etched fans of the first half of the eighteenth
century. •;* ,

130

131

ENGLISH PRINTED LEAVES 133

directions printed on them, must have been quite
a godsend ; and similar fan leaves, with the rules
of whist and other games, must have been most
convenient to card-players who were either un-
skilled or cursed with a bad memory.

Many of these late eighteenth-century fans
make no pretence to artistic interest ; they
simply form a convenient way of carrying informa-
tion, or of affording an hour's amusement, such
as the fortune-telling fans and those printed with
various popular ballads. During the early nine-
teenth century printed fans were not much used,
but during the forties and fifties numerous litho-
graphed fan leaves were issued, coloured in
imitation of valuable hand-painted French originals.
These are of very little interest, and one would
hardly think they would deceive any one ; but I
know of one or two which have been bought
as " genuine antiques," the mounts being quite
colourable imitations of the real thing.

While the finding of a copy of any particular
fan leaf would be difficult, and in some cases,
no doubt, impossible, there are some for which
the collector may well look out, as they are
extremely interesting, making up for their lack
of artistic merit by their value as contemporary
records of historical events, or as throwing side
lights on manners and customs of bygone days.

An early one represents the Coronation of
George II in 1727. It shows the King and Queen
seated under a canopy with the Lion and Unicorn

134 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

above. The champion has just thrown his
gauntlet, and crowds of spectators, trumpeters,
etc., fill up the composition.

There were several fans printed to commemo-
rate the Marriage of Princess Anne, daughter of
George II, to William, Prince of Orange, which
took place in 1734. They mostly make a feature
of floral decoration, introducing orange trees
and roses.

Gamble published one in 1733 symbolizing
the betrothal. The composition includes an
orange tree on the left, with a view of the Hague
and a rose bush in full bloom on the right, with
a view of St. Paul's. A dove bears a missive :
" To the lovely she who has more than 80,000
charms/' Some doggerel verse fills up the borders.

" Poor Fred, Who was alive and is dead,"
and of whom " There was no more to be said," x
is commemorated by a mourning leaf, with
Britannia weeping at his tomb. Published 1751.

1 Here lies Fred,
Who was alive and is dead :
Had it been his father,
I had much rather ;
Had it been his brother,
Still better than another ;
Had it been his sister
No one would have missed her ;
Had it been the whole generation,
Still better for the nation :
But since 'tis only Fred,
Who was alive and is dead —
There's no more to be said.

Walpole's Memoirs of George II,
vol. i. p. 504, 4to. ed.

IN ENGLAND 135

There are several dealing with George III. A
particularly quaint one shows a very domesti-
cated looking Britannia with looped-up draperies,
watering trees representing the Fine Arts, while
Justice smiles benignly on the other side ; the
King's bust is in the centre. Circa 1761.

Another shows the King in the midst of his
family indulging in music. At the sides are the
words and music of four short songs. Published
October 16, 1781, by T. Preston.

The joy of the nation at the recovery of George
III in 1789 found vent in various festivities, and a
special fan was printed for the occasion with the
motto : " Health is restored to ONE and happi-
ness to Millions." It is further ornamented with
a Crown, G.R., a rose and thistle, and two scarves
bearing the words : " On the King's Happy
Recovery."

Another gives portraits of the Royal Family
in medallions, scrolls of ribbon and leaves are
n the background, together with the Prince of
Wales's feathers. Published 1795.

Fan leaves in commemoration of victories by
land and sea were issued in considerable variety.

" Porto Bello, taken by Admiral Vernon 1739."
Published by Chassereau.

Vernon's attack on Cartagena in 1741, though
not crowned with success, is depicted on a fan
giving a semi-bird's-eye view of the fortress and
the hasty departure of the Spanish Admiral.

Rodney's naval victories are the subject of a
7

136 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

leaf, which shows the Admiral standing on a
French flag, while Cupid crowns him with laurel.
Britannia and Neptune, on either side, at the
same time each offer him a coronet.

There are many fans in commemoration of
persons and events connected with the Peninsular
War. The majority were intended for the Spanish
market, and are less interesting to a collector of
English fans than those meant for English use.
Of these a fine example has a portrait of Wellington
(head and bust), surrounded by a trophy of
French flags and eagles. Poems relating to
Salamanca and Vittoria fill up the sides. This
was published by J. Lauriere, St. James's Street,
and is found both plain and coloured.

A curious and interesting fan is that published
in honour of the Battle of the Nile. It is inscribed
" Nelson and Victory/' 1798. It has no pictorial
decoration, but there is a list of the English and
French ships, with their captains' names, and
in the case of the French ships such details as
" sunk/' " burnt," " taken." Below are the figures
of " 18 new Country Dances for 1799," with the
names of the tunes to which they were to be
danced. The combination is somewhat curious.

A popular type of fan gave views of celebrated
places, and we may well imagine that these were
largely bought by visitors as gifts for friends
at home. Amongst these : Ranelagh, engraved
by N. Parr, 1751 ; The Orange Grove, Bath,
published by Speren, 1737. A neat oval view

IN ENGLAND 137

of the " Crescent, Buxton," no publisher's name
or date, and a Souvenir of Margate, embellished
with seven small views, published by Lewis
Wells, 1798, are interesting as showing well-
known spots in bygone days. Hogarth's prints
were enormously popular, and were, of course,
utilized for fan decoration, separate scenes from
"The Harlot's Progress" and "The Rake's
Progress " appearing as the whole decoration of
a leaf, or else smaller versions of the entire series
being used on one fan. They are generally badly
engraved, and were travesties of the originals,
but are valued not only by fan collectors, but
also by Hogarth enthusiasts.

A whole group of fans deals with the subject
of fortune-telling. They are seldom pretty, the
greater part of the leaf being occupied by letter-
press. The majority were issued in the last ten
years of the eighteenth and the early years of
the nineteenth century. It seems most extra-
ordinary that any interest could ever have been
taken in such silly questions and answers as those
which appear on these fans.

Some of the subjects engraved on the leaves
appear quite unsuitable for their purpose, as,
for instance, one bearing a synopsis of the history
of England, printed in a very plain style, and
giving a few dates and elementary facts (published
1793) ; and a botanical fan with the names of the
different parts of a flower. Others have maps
either of the whole of England, or of particular

138 PRINTED FAN LEAVES

counties. It seems probable that these fans
were intended for use in " Young Ladies' Semin-
aries " at dancing lessons, enabling unoccupied
moments to be profitably employed. They are
a very scarce type of fan, though no doubt they
were, at the date of issue, quite cheap and
plentiful.

The Church Fans are a most curious class, which
came into use at least as early as 1732-3, when
Gamble advertised : " The Church of England
Fan ; being an explanation of the Oxford Almanack
for the year 1733." Some of these fans are
printed with Biblical scenes, others have Psalms
and other portions of Scripture surrounded by
garlands of flowers and scroll work. The fan
was a necessary part of the toilet of all ladies
of fashion in the eighteenth century, and as it
was as indispensable a companion at church as
elsewhere, it seems only natural that suitable
subjects should be used to ornament it. Some
of them are, however, surprisingly roughly executed
when we consider that they were intended to
accompany a full-dress toilet, such as was worn
by ladies at church.

It would be impossible to classify many of the
leaves under separate headings, but under " Aids
to Memory " we may put a number of subjects,
such as the words and music of songs, the rules
and scoring of games of cards, directions for the
figures of country dances and plans showing the
names of holders of boxes at the opera. The

IN ENGLAND 139

majority of fans of this class were issued in the
second half of the eighteenth century — most of
them in the last twenty years of it. They almost
always are very simply designed, and contain
only the required information and a few ornamental
scrolls or garlands.

Further descriptions of printed fans will be found
in Chapter III under " Cabriolet," " Church,"
" Wedding," " Mourning."

FANS OF
VARIOUS
TYPES

CHAPTER III

FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

THE different kinds of fans which are described
in this chapter are in several cases also mentioned
in other places ; for instance, some " mourning
fans/' which are often found with printed leaves,
are described in Chapter II. But for the purpose
of easy reference these items have been grouped
together under different headings. Taking the
standard fan as being composed of a flexible
leaf mounted on rigid supports, so hinged together
that they close up over one another, the first
two kinds described are those that differ from
the normal, the " Cabriolet/* which has the leaf
divided into two or more parts, and the " Brise,"
which has no leaf under this second heading.
Many varieties are dealt with, as it was an ex-
tremely popular type.

Following these are fans which have special
uses : " Lorgnette Fans/* " Church Fans/' and
so on. This subdivision might have been carried
further, but where only a few of any type were
made it seems useless to give them a special
subsection. Last of all, some fans which differ

143

PLATE XIX.

1. English Brise* Fan of holly wood pierced and
painted. The decoration consists of three applied
engravings. Pearl button. Late eighteenth or
early nineteenth century.

2. Ivory, pierced, gilt, and painted ; with
medallions containing a group of figures watching
doves, and busts of females and boys. The
painting is in the style of Angelica Kauffmann,
and may have been done by her. English. Late
eighteenth or early nineteenth century.

144

PLATE XIX.
145

VERNIS MARTIN 147

from the ordinary in some point, such as the
material of which they are made.

Brise Fans.

Brise Fans are those which have no leaf, being
entirely composed of some stimsh substance,
such as ivory, bone, tortoiseshell, horn, filigree,
silver, or wood. These materials are all slightly
flexible, and are used in astonishingly thin slices ;
and it is really remarkable how many such fans
have survived with very few marks of injury,
and is even more surprising where the material
has been perforated and sawn into a lace-like
openwork.

Brise fans were made in the seventeenth century,
but few existing specimens are earlier than the
second quarter of the eighteenth century, and
very many date from the early part of the nine-
teenth. Most important of the eighteenth cen-
tury brise fans are those decorated in Vernis
Martin. Though the designs are generally
entirely European in character, this method of
decoration was doubtless inspired by an admira-
tion for the lustrous polished surface of Oriental
lacquer work. It consists of a delicate, and often
very highly finished, painting, carried out in oil
colours, applied very thinly. The whole surface
of the fan was covered with colour and gilding,
and finally received a coating of the exceptionally
fine colourless varnish which gives its name to
this style of decoration. This varnish was a

PLATE XX.

Ivory Brise" Fan, painted, " Vernis Martin/'
with the " Abduction of Helen of Troy." The
colouring is very rich and mellow, harmonious
tones of blue, red, and purple predominating.
The lower part is decorated in the Chinese style.
Back, a seaview. Louis XV period. French.

M. Duvelleroy.

148

149

VERNIS MARTIN 151

secret product, and its ingredients were only
known to the Brothers Martin. They flourished
in Paris from about 1720 until 1758. The elder
brother, who had been styled ' Vernisseur du
roi," died in 1749, and the business was continued
by his widow with the assistance of one of the
other brothers. The firm had three ateliers,
one in the Faubourg Saint Martin, one in the
Faubourg St. Denis, and the third in the Rue
Saint Magloire. Their earlier efforts were copies
of Oriental lacquer, and their success in that
direction led them to embark on the very different
type of work with which we associate the name.
Coach panels, pieces of furniture, cabinets, wall-
panelling, and many small objects, such as snuff-
boxes, etuis and memorandum tablets, used by
fashionable people, were highly valued when
finished in this style.

The firm appears to have employed a number
of painters, as the styles in which the decoration
is carried out are very numerous. With regard
to the fans, in the majority of cases the painting
is divided into two parts — upper and lower —
giving to some extent the effect of a fan with a
leaf and painted stick. The character of the
designs of the two portions often differs com-
pletely both in subject and scheme of colour ;
though the tone is always harmonious, the handle
end is almost always lighter than the upper part,
and the painting is carried out on a smaller scale.
The connecting ribbon is in most cases close to

152 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

the top, and is decorated in keeping with the
rest of the fan. These fans have been faked
and forged in considerable numbers. Genuine
specimens in good condition are extremely rare
and of very considerable value. It is therefore
not surprising that unscrupulous individuals
should make copies and pass them off as the real
thing. Many of these copies are wonderfully
well done, and are certainly calculated to deceive
any one who has not made a special study of
these fans, and it may well happen that a per-
fectly honest dealer may offer a modern example
for sale as genuine. Other examples, which
through use have been rubbed and worn, and thus
lost much of their original beauty, have been
repainted and touched up so as to appear in
fine condition, only just so much of signs of usage
being allowed to remain as are inevitable where
a fan has been handled at all. By the most
perfect copies of Vernis Martin even the cleverest
expert may be taken in. Such specimens have
in the past crept into museums and the greatest
collections, and no doubt will do so again, and
it certainly is useless to attempt to give in writing
any advice which would be of the slightest use
in helping any one to distinguish them. How-
ever, the work is so exquisite, and the talent
required to produce such wonderful imitations so
rare, that the minor collector is not likely to
meet with them : he will be saved by the fact
that they must necessarily be very expensive.

VERNIS MARTIN

153

The individuals who ply their nefarious trade in
this direction fly at higher game. Those who
pay high prices should buy from reputable dealers,
and if not sufficiently expert to feel confidence
in their own opinion should obtain that of an
expert before purchasing.

Fans are, however, offered as Vernis Martin
which are merely ordinary oil paintings under
polish or varnish, which, neither in limpidity nor
lustre can be compared with the fine product
of the Brothers Martin. Such fans may either
be contemporary work by those who had not
the correct receipt (some Dutch fans have a very
fine varnish which approaches the real thing),
or later eighteenth-century work carrying on the
tradition, but minus the fine surface ; in their
case colour engravings may take the place of
painting, or they may be mid-nineteenth-century
imitations, or quite modern forgeries. These last
are almost always of the " Watteau " type of
design, with as few figures as possible — landscape
is so much quicker and easier to paint than
humans — the execution is coarse, the figures are
simpering, and the poses are affected with the
wrong sort of affectation. The affectation of the
eighteenth century was of a stately and graceful
kind, while in the second-rate imitation it is the
self-conscious posing of an amateur actor. The
colouring is not of the full rich type, which belongs
to genuine Vernis Martin, but of the somewhat
sickly and pretty-pretty kind of pale blues, pinks,

PLATE XXI.

Brise Fans.

1. Vernis Martin on ivory. Subject : " Tele-
marque/' Period, Louis XV. French.

M. Duvelleroy.

2. Dutch Fan, mid-eighteenth century, painted
on ivory in the Japanese taste.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

154

PLATE XXI.
155

IVORY FANS 157

peagreens, and primrose tints which one associates
with a box of fondant sweets.

Later on in the century ivory brise fans were
painted with the three medallions connected by
the garlands and festoons which are so typical
of Louis Seize fans and their English contempo-
raries. These ovals enclose either portraits or
fancy heads of young people or children, village
scenes, such subjects as " The Visit," bridal
scenes (for wedding fans), dainty painted land-
scapes or views of country seats.

Many of the Louis Seize brise fans were very
small and exquisitely fretted. Doubtless the
work was originally inspired by the Chinese ivory
openwork fans, which figured among the admired
curios imported in such numbers during the
eighteenth century ; but the French ivory workers
had adapted the style to their own genius, and
the designs are quite different. In many cases
the openwork consists of a succession of fine
perforated lines, in the midst of which are sil-
houetted wreaths and swags of flowers, and the
three medallions which are painted as described
above, but in some cases are carved in exceedingly
low relief. Other contemporary fans are simply
pierced in very simple patterns of the nature of
a diaper, which transforms their sticks into the
semblance of a skeleton leaf; in some cases no
portion of the ivory is more than a thirty-second
of an inch broad. The guards, of course, are
stouter. These eighteenth-century brise fans may

PLATE XXII.

Cabriolet Fans.

1. A French Fan of the Cabriolet type. Chicken
skin and ivory.

Schreiber Collection.

2. Three-tiered Cabriolet Fan. A somewhat
unusual type, with ivory carved and painted
sticks.

M. Duvelleroy.

158

PLATE XXII.
139

FANS OF PIERCED WOOD 161

be distinguished from the later ones by their
much finer workmanship and the straight outline
at the top. Later each stick was rounded or
pointed, but, as a rule, the Louis Seize brise
opens to a smooth semicircular sweep. There
are exceptions, some of the earlier having indi-
vidually shaped sticks, and some later having
straight tops, but in each case these are unusual.
Contemporary with the fine ivory brise fans
with painted and carved ornament there were,
for less important occasions, and for those less
favoured with this world's goods, fans of perforated
wood, such as cedar and satinwood, in which
the more delicate ornament was replaced by
rather coarsely executed paintings and applied
engravings. The three-medallion idea was almost
always adhered to, the central picture being often
a landscape or group flanked by fancy heads or
portraits. Sometimes these faces were of a
political cast, and formed a vehicle, in the case
of French examples, for the display of loyalty.
Portraits of the King and Queen and Bourbon
emblems were used, also figures weeping over
urns or graves, presumably those of Louis and
Marie Antoinette. Some of these fans, probably
of rather a late date, display their loyalty openly,
others have the portraits, etc., more or less
concealed, either by sliding sections in the guards,
or by the method described under " Puzzle
Fans."

For the less expensive examples of late

162 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

eighteenth-century brise fans, and those of the
very early nineteenth, wood was much used. A
fine-grained kind was naturally chosen, such as
holly, which, however, has the disadvantage of
extreme brittleness ; satinwood, sandalwood —
delightful by reason of its delicate scent — and
laburnum.

During the period of the Regency and to the
end of William IV small fans were very fashion-
able in England, and there are many very pretty
examples extant which, without being of any
great artistic or pecuniary value, are quite inter-
esting by reason of their dainty finish and pretty
colouring. Perhaps the most charming of them
are the semi-transparent brise fans, made of
extremely thin sticks of horn, decorated in rather
vivid colouring, with tiny flowers in body colour.
Forget-me-nots, roses, and heartease (all shown
of about the same dimensions) are the favourite
blossoms. The horn is also pierced in the parts
which are not painted, and the result is quite
fairy-like in effect, though, as a matter of fact,
these horn fans are about the toughest of all,
and are often found in absolutely perfect condi-
tion. They are sometimes called " whalebone
fans/1 but this is a misnomer.

Contemporary fans in bone or wood are deco-
rated in much the same way. Often there is a
reserve not fretted, on which a subject, such as
a landscape, a rustic group, or bunch or basket
of flowers, is somewhat crudely depicted. Most

CABRIOLET FANS 163

of these fans appear to have been imported, and
are probably of Dutch origin. I have lately seen
some of these fans, which have had the nineteenth-
century paintings washed off and pseudo-Watteau
figures or groups of amorini executed in their
place. These were ticketed as " Eighteenth-
Century Minuet Fans/' and the price asked was
correspondingly high.

Cabriolet Fans.

Cabriolet Fans are very scarce, and are much
valued by collectors. They are souvenirs of a
curious vogue which took possession of fashion-
able Paris about the middle of the eighteenth
century. Just as, in modern days, the joy of
swift motion caused first bicycling and then
motoring to be responsible for the decoration of
a host of trifles, so a century and a half before
the ease and rapidity of the small two-wheeled,
one-horse vehicle, known as a " cabriolet," took
a firm hold on the fancy of the French. An
account of this fashionable craze is given in a
letter from Horace Walpole, addressed to Sir
Horace Mann, dated June 15, 1755 :

" All we hear from France is that a new madness
reigns there as strong as that of Pantins was.
This is la fureur des cabriolets : Anglice, one-
horse chairs, introduced by Mr. Child x ; they
not only universally go in them, but wear them ;
that is, everything is to be en cabriolet ; the men

1 Josiah Child, brother of the Earl of Tilney.

PLATE XXIII.

1. A Louis XVI fan, with exquisite carved and
gilt sticks. Subject : " Rebecca and Eliezar."

M. Duvelleroy.

2. A Mandarin Fan. Paper leaf, with applied
ivory faces and silk garments.

1G4

PLATE XXIII.
165

CABRIOLET FANS 167

paint them on their waistcoats, and have them
embroidered for clocks to their stockings ; and
the women, who have gone all the winter without
anything on their heads, are now muffled up in
great caps, with round sides, in the form of,
and never less than, the wheels of chaises/'

Naturally, fans were not an exception to the
universal application of this form of decoration,
and painted and printed leaves showing the
vehicles in use, and other scenes of Parisian life,
were the mode of the moment.

The representation of this variety of fan in
the Schreiber Collection contrasts the cabriolet
with other methods of motion ; sledging, skating,
and a child's go-carriage being depicted. An
essential point about these fans is that the leaf
is divided into two with a space left between,
the ornamentation of the two parts being inde-
pendent. In rare cases there are three divisions.
In some way probably this refers to the large
wheels of the cabriolet, but the connection is
not very clear. Perhaps the two fashions may
simply have come into vogue simultaneously,
and the new style fan have been christened by
the name of the highly popular vehicle, which
was almost invariably the subject of its deco-
ration.

Cabriolet fans appear to have been always of
French origin, and in most cases are of fine work-
manship, though some are rather coarsely finished.
They are in any case a rare variety, of consider-

168 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

able interest, and should certainly be acquired
if opportunity occurs.

Puzzle or Mystery Fans.

Puzzle or Mystery Fans were much in vogue
during the eighteenth century. They owe their
interest to the fact that instead of the two subjects
— back and front — which are shown on the
ordinary fan, these display four pictures, or sets
of pictures, according to the way they are
manipulated. In some cases the subjects are
all of ordinary character, and the simple mystifica-
tion involved by the fan changing from blue to
red, green, or brown at the will of the owner was
the object of the " puzzle." In other fans, how-
ever, while the pictures shown when the fan
opened in the ordinary way were landscapes or
classical subjects, the others were by no means
of an equally innocent character, and in some
cases were decidedly coarse. They are always
of the brise type, and the ribboning is so arranged
that they open equally well from right to left,
or left to right. The sticks are rather more
numerous than is ordinarily the case, as they
have to be strung so that only exactly half of
each is visible at a time.

Each stick had four portions of decoration on
it ; on the left of the front the design shown on
the front when the fan opened from left to right ;
on the right of the front the design visible when
it opened from right to left, the back being

LORGNETTE FANS 169

treated the same way. The utmost exactitude
Was necessary in order that no trace of the secon-
dary subject should appear, and so well is this
done that I have known of a fan having been
in a collection for years, and even used several
times, without its owner knowing of the " mystery."
Engravings are in many cases employed for
the decoration, but paintings are also used ; those
that I have seen were somewhat carelessly executed.
Many brise fans of the English Regency period
were rather eccentric in design. One such has the
guard ornamented to represent a quiver, and
each stick is carved and painted to resemble an
arrow, with rather an unusual amount of feather-
ing ; the pin, of course, runs through the head
of the arrows. It is curious rather than pretty.
Another fan has the edge cut into battlements,
and the painting on the sticks is a view of a
castle wall, which forms a background to a group
of knights and dames starting out on a hawking
expedition.

Lorgnette or Quizzing Fan.

Perhaps the secret, or one of the secrets, of
the fascination that fans have for so many
of us is the light they throw on the ways
and manners of the days when they were made.
The Lorgnette Fan could only have had a vogue
in a period when affectation was the " correct
thing." It is to all appearance an ordinary
small fan, with silk or gauze leaf ornamented

PLATE XXIV.

1. Lorgnette Fan. French. Leaf. White
taffeta silk, ornamented with spangles of different
sizes and shapes, arranged to form a border of
circles of three ; of these the centres have been
cut away and replaced by white net, forming
transparencies, through which the user could
observe all that was going on while affecting
to screen her eyes. The binding and border of
silver paper. The sticks, bone pierced.

With this fan is preserved the original case of
red leather, lined with white satin, pink velvet,
and silk gimp.

2. Silk Fan, painted and gilt, with flowers
and trophies, decorated also with mother-o '-pearl
coloured straw and spangles. The sticks are of
carved ivory, silvered and gilt. Late eighteenth
century.

3. Silk Fan, painted and gilt, with flowers and
trophies, and decorated with spangles. In the
centre is a panel painted with three figures.
German. Late eighteenth century.

170

PLATI-: XXIV.
171

LORGNETTE FANS 178

with spangles or painting, the decoration finished
with a rather heavy border round the top.
Often this consists of interlaced ovals or circles
in spangles, sometimes there is an applique
of coarsish silk lace. If examined more closely,
it will be noted that in this border several of
the circles differ in appearance from the rest ; the
solid silk or skin has been cut away from the
back of them, and they are transparent. It might
be imagined that this is a feature in the scheme
of decoration, but it is not so. These open-work
circles are, as a matter of fact, peepholes, through
which the owner, while pretending to screen her
eyes with her fan from a risquJ scene in a play,
or other sight which ought to have offended her
modesty, but in reality only excited her interest,
could see all that was going on. After all, it can
only have been an affectation of affectation,
because these fans were well known, and cannot
have deceived any one by the ruse. There is
another variety of the lorgnette fan which is
rather different. The entire border consists of
large open circles, and in one of the guards is
fixed a magnifying glass. This kind of fan was
intended for use by short-sighted people, or as
a substitute for an opera glass. The idea was
quite a good one.

Both these kinds of fan were made at the end
of the eighteenth century and the beginning of
the nineteenth, and were decorated in exactly
the same way as other fans of that period. The

* ***

'• . , ' ,

•

176 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

published especially intended for use in

church.

Gamble had published in 1732-3 " The Church
of England Fan," and " Moses Striking the
Rock " in 1740, and besides these numerous fans
painted with Biblical scenes were available.

Later on in the century several other church
fans appeared, possibly in response to a vigorously
worded protest against the mundane decorations
of fan leaves, which appeared in the Lady's Magazine
March, 1776. The " Female Reformer " says she
was " really ashamed to see naked cupids, and
women almost so, represented as sleeping under
trees, while dancing shepherds and piping fawns
compleated the shameful groupe " on a fan which
she had " observed in a Dissenting Place of
Worship."

The following printed leaves, probably intended
as church fans, are included in the Schreiber
Collection : —

" The Birth of Esau and Jacob." In a large
open hall Rebekah in bed attended by female
servants, two of whom hold the newborn infants,
while another attendant washes vessels at a
table. Below is the inscription : " The Birth
of Esau and Jacob. Gen. 25." Etching, hand
coloured.

" Moses Striking the Rock." A scene repre-
senting the encampment of the Israelites in the
wilderness. In the centre Moses is standing by
the rock, from which a stream of water issues,

CHURCH FANS 177

while various figures drink or draw water from
it. " Published by M. Gamble according to the
late Act, 1740." Etching hand coloured, mounted
on plain ivory sticks.

" St. Paul Preaching at Athens." On a flight
of steps among classical ruins before a city St.
Paul addressing an audience. Etching coloured
by hand, mounted on plain ivory sticks.

" Church fan, 1796." Two medallions with com-
positions containing angels, from designs by the
Rev. W. Peters ; around them the Lord's Prayer,
the Commandments, and the Creeds ; above,
prayers for the King's Majesty and the Royal
Family, and in the centre the Holy Ghost, with
three cherubs, inscribed, " New Church Fan
Publish'd with the Approbation of the Lord
Bishop of London." Entered at Stationers' Hall
by the proprietors May I, 1796. Stipple engraving
uncoloured, mounted on plain wooden sticks.

" Chapel fan, 1796." In the centre a group of
' The Resurrection of a Pious Family," after a
picture by the Rev. W. Peters, and above it two
figures in adoration, in the centre above the
inscription : " Glory to God in the Highest,"
and on the fan various psalms and hymns, with
cherubs interspersed, inscribed : " Chapel Fan
entered at Stationer's Hall by the Proprietor,
July i, 1796. Stipple Engraving uncoloured
mounted on plain wooden sticks."

A very large number of subjects are included
in " Theatrical Fans," and many are extremely

178 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

quaint and interesting, as they show the curious
effect of the custom almost universally followed
of the players wearing the ordinary costume
of the day, only occasionally modified to suit
the supposed period of the action. They are
seldom at all well executed, and the colour is
generally rather dead and uninteresting.

The Casket Scene from the Merchant of Venice
represents the moment when Portia shows the
three caskets to the Prince of Morocco. It was
published by Hollis in 1746.

" Romeo and Juliet " was published by Gamble
in 1742.

" Henry VIII." The scene represents the Royal
Christening, published by Gamble in 1745, and
there are hundreds of others.

The following fans of the " Theatrical " group
would be interesting if they could be discovered.
The particulars are quoted from " Polly Peachum,"
by Charles E. Pearce, 1913, p. 127 : —

" Here are a few of the advertisements that
appeared during the run of the [Beggar's] Opera.

" ' A New and Entertaining Fan, consisting of
14 of the most Favourite Songs taken out of
the Beggar's Opera, with the musick in proper
keys within the compass of the Flute, curiously
engraved on a Copper Plate. Sold for the author
at Mr. Gay's Head, in Tavistock Street, Covent
Garden.' "

Other fans of the handscreen type were also
issued in honour of the opera.

MOURNING FANS 179

" ' This day is published the Beggar's Opera
Screen, on which is curiously engraved on Copper
Plates the principal Captives of the All-Conquering
Polly plainly described by Hieroglyphicks (i.e.
caricatures), and on the Reverse their Amorous
Letters and Declarations to that celebrated
Warbler of Ribaldry. The whole illustrated and
adorn'd in their proper natural Colours with
Mottos suited to their Quality. Printed for the
Inventor and sold at the Fan Shop next door
to White's Chocolate House in St. James Street ;
at Mrs. Vuljohn's at the Golden Leg in Cranbourn
Alley ; at Mrs. Jackson's at the Three Fans
against Salisbury Street in the Strand ; at Mr.
Markham's at the Seven Stars under St. Dunstan's
Church, Fleet Street ; and at Mrs. Robotham's
at the Red M and Dagger in Pope's head Alley
against the Royal Exchange on Cornhill. Price
2s. 6d.' "

Mourning Fans.

During the period prescribed by etiquette for
the wearing of mourning, fans with leaves
decorated in black were used. These were
sometimes uncoloured prints and etchings, or
engravings or pen-and-ink drawings on chicken
skin or paper. Sometimes the subject was of
a sad kind, but others are merely classical or
Biblical of the ordinary type in use at the time.
Mourning fans were in use in France after the
execution of Louis XVI, which contained con-

180 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

cealed portraits of the King and Queen. Some
of them are to be found worked out among the
leaves and branches of a weeping willow, others
are only visible when certain of the folds are
brought together by not opening the fan entirely.

These fans aroused the ire of the Republican
journals.

" Les signes royaux reparaissent avec plus
d'audace et de f ureur que j amais. Outre la maniere
de se reconnaitre en presentant d'une certaine
fagon sa canne courte, a pomme unie d'acier ;
outre les signaux de la main, etc., on reprend le
deuil des victimes et il se porte sur des event ails
noirs garnis d'un lise*re blanc ; au milieu, un
panier de fleurs blanches, qui resserre par le pli
de trois brins de Teventail presente une superbe
fleur de lys. Get eventail etait au grand ordre
du jour a la derniere reunion de Clichy et c'etait
quelque chose de vraiment incroyable que le zele
qu'on a mis a s'en procurer. Get evantail vraiment
unique a cependant un rival aussi etonnant aussi
de'licieux aussi admirable. II est seme de fleurs ;
et dans leur heureux contours le pli de quelques
brins donne le profil des malheureuses et augustes
victimes, dont les manes reposent parmi les
fleurs. C'est ainsi qu'on prelude aux honneurs
a rendre aux deux epoux Capet." Journal des
Hommes Libres (3 thermidor an IV). In the same
number (supplement) a third variety of these
fans is mentioned : —

" Le merite plus cache n'en est que plus precieux ;

MOURNING FANS 181

il n'ont absolument 1'air que (Tune plaisanterie,
et le genie qui y a place le signd cheri du salut a
si bien pris ses dimensions qu'on se donnerait
au diable qu'il n'est la que par hasard. Vous
voyez en effet sur ces derniers se developper
pele-mele tous les papiers monnaie qui on suivi
et servi la Revolution Qu'en voulez vous dire ?
Attendez done. . . . Juste au milieu, depasse du
timbre sec d'un assignat de vingt-cinq livres la
triste figure de Louis Capet. . . . et vous croyez
que celui-la n'est pas gentil ! "

In November of the same year this paper once
more took up the cudgels against these Royalist
fans. This time it was one of the weeping willow
variety showing the profiles of the King, the
Queen, Madame Premiere, and of Louis XVII.
These fans were sold by Madame Despeaux,
Rue de Graumont, at the price of 180 to 200
livres.

English mourning fans are fairly numerous.
They may be found with both painted and printed
leaves, but seldom have any pretensions to
artistry, being, as a rule, commonplace in design
and perfunctory in execution. There were several
varieties published at the time of the death of
George III. One shows a figure of Britannia laying
a wreath at the foot of a pedestal, surmounted
by a bust of the late King. Another of a some-
what similar character depicts a weeping female
figure leaning against a pedestal, on which
stands an urn. There are weeping willows in

182 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

the background, which part to show a distant
view of Windsor Castle. They are both etched ;
the last has also roughly stencilled pansies arranged
as a border along the top. They are both
mounted on black wooden sticks, and appear
to be issued by the same publisher, whose
name, however, does not appear on either of
them. It is curious what a hold the memory
of the poor distraught old King had on the affec-
tions of the bulk of the nation ; at the time
these leaves were printed he had been lost to the
country for years, but his homely virtues had
not been forgotten, and many must have been
glad to buy these mementoes.

Wedding Fans.

In their trousseaux French brides of the
eighteenth century included a large number of
fans. These were not all intended for their own
use, but according to the custom of the time
were offered to the lady guests as souvenirs
of the event. On the occasion of a Royal
wedding they were extremely costly and beau-
tiful. For example, on the marriage of Marie
Liczinska the fans in her corbeille numbered
thirty-five ; they were furnished by Ticquet,
fan maker to the King, and the cost of their
manufacture was 3,627 livres.

In 1745 the Dauphin married his first wife,
Marie-Therese Antoinette, daughter of Philip V,
and her thirty-six fans were valued at 3,855 livres,

WEDDING FANS 183

and were distributed among the ladies of the
Court. Among them was one of which a short
description is given. " A fan of wood and carved
mother-o'-pearl, encrusted with goldwork. It has
a skin mount." The value was 474 livres (Archives
Nat. Manages du Dauphin, fils de Louis XV.
Recits 0*3252). His second wife, Marie Josephe
de Saxe also had thirty-five fans, one of which
is described as being " a fan of wood, mother-
o'-pearl and ivory, decorated with carved gold
work, and having a beautiful skin mount. This
fan alone cost 456 livres.

It was de rigueur in eighteenth-century times
for a bride of the aristocratic class to present to
each guest a gift in the shape of a purse. The
ladies who were present also received a fan, and
very possibly the numerous fans which represent
weddings may originally have been souvenirs of
this description.

There are in existence a considerable number
of fans on which Royal marriages are depicted,
also the betrothal of Royal personages, and the
signing of marriage settlements. It is sometimes
assumed that these fans were made for the use
of the principal personages represented, but it
is much more likely that in most cases they are
souvenirs of the events depicted given to those
present. In many cases they are not intended as
accurate transcripts of the actual scene, but are
allegorical groups in which the bride and bride-
groom are shown in the guise of gods and

186 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

Publick, and not trouble them with quackish
Epistles quite foreign to the Purpose/'

This seems to have snuffed Hylton out, for no
more of his " quackish " epistles appear.

Gamble also published a fan in honour of this
very popular match, entitled " The Orange Tree."
It is not signed, but can be identified from the
description given in the Craftsman, August 25,
1733. It has on one side of the composition an
orange tree in fruit, on the other a rose tree in
flower, and in the centre a dove bearing a missive
addressed " To the Lovely She Who has more
than 80,000 Charms/'

It may be that the " 80,000 Charms " was
intended as a somewhat cynical reference to the
£80,000, which was the sum allotted as the
Princess's dowry ! It may have given offence,
as it was subsequently modified to 30,000.

Other printed wedding fans are those in honour
of the marriage of the Prince of Wales (after-
wards George IV) with Caroline of Brunswick.
One called " The Royal Pair " shows their por-
traits and the Royal Arms of Great Britain and
Brunswick. Another, " published at Sudlow's
Fan Warehouse, 191, Strand," consists of a medley
of prints, riddles, etc., and a frieze of caricature
busts of men and women, with portraits in the
centre of the Prince and Princess.

Another, " The Illustrious Pair/' with medallion
portraits and the Prince of Wales's feathers and
motto, and a festoon of flowers and ribbons, was

WEDDING FANS 187

published January 18, 1795, by T. Reed, 133,
Pall Mall. There were also fan leaves published
in France in honour of the marriage of Louis XVI
with Marie Antoinette, and of the marriage of
Napoleon and Marie Louise.

A most interesting fan, in honour of the
marriage of Louis XIV, which is included in the
Schreiber Collection, has already been described
(p. 27). There is also in the same collection a
fan decorated with a representation of the
marriage of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany,
afterwards the Emperor Leopold II of Austria,
with Maria Teresa, daughter of Charles III of
Spain. The scene is in the church at Innsbruck.
Motto : " Aguila y Leon a un Laza unidos," and
on the right a cupid with the arms of Austria,
and the motto : " Primero seran muertos que
vencidos " ; floral and gilt ornament. On the
reverse two cupids lighting torches, and sprigs
of flowers. It is painted in water colour on skin.

Cut Vellum or Decoupe Fans.

These are amongst the earliest European folding
fans. They enjoyed an extreme vogue during
the latter part of the sixteenth century and
throughout the seventeenth. They were gene-
rally made of vellum, but sometimes of tough
paper, and were cut with the utmost accuracy
to resemble the embroidery of cut linen and
stitchery, which was so typical of the period
when they were fashionable. Comparatively

188

FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

few of them have survived, but they appear
in numerous portraits, so it is evident that
they must have been in very general use.
They were sometimes adorned with insertions
of mica, and were mounted on ivory sticks.
There is an extremely fine specimen in the Cluny
Museum, which is most ingeniously mounted,
the sticks and mica passing through slits in the
vellum. In this example the chief part of the
decoration consists of small paintings on the
mica insertions. They consist of classical emblems,
trophies, and geometrical designs. In other fans
there are sometimes " reserves " of uncut vellum,
which form the ground for finely painted minia-
tures ; but the majority, if we may judge from
their counterfeit presentments, were of vellum
cut all over as if it were needlework.

Pierre de 1'Estoile, in the " Isle of the Herma-
phrodites/' 1588 (quoted by Uzanne in " The
Fan," English trans., 1884), describes the effeminate
King decked with necklaces of pearls, with rings,
with earrings, with pads of velvet, and so on.
He gives an account of the fan he used with
much detail : —

" In the King's right hand was placed an
instrument which folded and unfolded at a tap
of the finger — what we here call a fan ; it was
of vellum, cut out as delicately as could be, with
lace round it of the same stuff. It was a good
size, since it was intended to serve as a parasol
to prevent his becoming sunburnt, and to give

VELLUM FANS 189

some coolness to his delicate complexion. . . .
All those I was able to see in the rest of the
rooms had likewise Fans of the same kind or
else made of taffetas, with lace of gold or silver
for a border."

M. Germain Bapst (quoted by M. A. Flory,
" A Book about Fans ") has suggested that the
fan described above, as now preserved in the
Cluny Museum, may be the very one which was
described by Pierre de TEstoile. The King of
whom he wrote being no other than Henri III, it
is of course possible ; but such fans were not
unusual, and though as a survival it is almost
unique, when it was made, it was no doubt but
one of many.

Leather Fans.

This material was used in making fans in the
sixteenth century, and many were imported
into France from Spain. In 1594 the statutes
of the Master Leather Gilders (quoted by
M. Natalis Rondot) contained the following
article : —

" May furnish . . . Fans made with outer
lamb's skin taffety or kid enriched or em-
broidered— embellished as it may please the
merchant and lord to command."

These may have been folding fans, but were
more likely to have been of the screen type.

Perfumed leather fans were also imported from
Spain, and Mdle. de Montpensier in her " Memoires"

190 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

mentions the fact that the Queen Mother (Anne
of Austria) held one constantly.

Fans of Silk and other Textile Fabrics.

The use of silk for fans was not uncommon in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as we find from
entries in inventories. Exactly what form such
fans took must be a matter for surmise, as no par-
ticulars are given, but most probably the material
was stretched on a frame and embroidered by way
of decoration, and possibly edged with a fringe
of feathers. The handle was of precious metal,
ivory, or carved wood. For folding fans it was
not a usual material until towards the close of
the eighteenth century, though specimens are
known, such, for example, as the embroidered
Dutch fan in the Wyatt Collection at the Victoria
and Albert Museum — a heavy and rather clumsy
specimen. Many Louis Seize fans, however, and
their English contemporaries are of silk, with the
usual three subjects painted on them. The silk
generally used appears to be of a special quality
intended for the purpose ; it is fine, even, and
clear, yet very light. It makes a good surface
for painting on, taking the colours well. The
oval or other shaped panels are almost always
surrounded with one or two rows of closely set
spangles, which are also introduced very frequently
into the borders and elsewhere. These spangles
are most generally round or oval in shape, and
sewn on with fine stitches. There is seldom any

SILK FANS 191

other embroidery introduced, though occasionally
an example is found with small leaves, simulated
by a few flat stitches of floss silk, but as a rule
the rest of the ornament is painted. Contemporary
and very similar to these in general appearance
are the colour printed silk fans, which, as far as
I know, were all of English origin. There were
many charming subjects carried out in this way
at the end of the eighteenth century and the
beginning of the nineteenth. They were especially
intended for use on fans, and were either mounted
direct on the satin as printed, or cut out and
applied to gauze or silk, the latter course being
the more usual. They are often very charming in
effect, and are far preferable to the very trite
performances which passed muster as " hand-
painted " leaves at about the same time. The
rest of the leaf, not occupied by the prints, is
filled with arabesques and slight wreaths, gar-
lands, and other like devices, either painted or
worked in sequins. The colour of these prints
is rich and varied, and the groundwork of the
silk and the glitter of the sequins being mellowed
by time, the effect is charmingly harmonious.

The delightful silk fan illustrated, Plate XXVIII,
is in the Wyatt Collection at the Victoria
and Albert Museum, and is a very good example
of this genre, though perhaps the spangling is
not so well and evenly done as in some specimens.
The central medallion — an oval-shaped colour
print after Fragonard — is very fine, the small side

192 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

panels not quite so good, but they are all very
pretty. The smaller medallions are painted in
blue and white, and are inspired by Wedgwood's
jasper- ware " cameos " ; but the subjects are not
of the classical type which he generally affected,
being rustic figures, a boy and bird figuring on
one. The disadvantage of these silk and spangle
fans, whether painted or printed, lies in the
wrong side. The fabric did not lend itself to the
addition of a reverse, as paste would have perished
the silk and made it crack ; so on the wrong side,
instead of a delicate painting, which is found on
the earlier fans, or at worst a plain leaf, there is
a medley of stitches often very haphazard in
arrangement. It seems that the clever crafts-
men of those days, who were so deft and skilled
in many ways, ought to have found some better
plan. Silk fans are very liable to split about
the centre fold, and care should be taken not to
stretch them too much when opening, and not
to keep them open.

Following the Louis Seize type of fan in England
(where it continued in use a long time after it
had ceased to be made in France), and in France
itself after the interregnum in the world of better-
class fans which followed the Revolution, came
the small fan, which is known as the " Empire."
It rarely exceeds seven inches in length, and is
often smaller ; but the mount is often of a fair
width, as the length from head to shoulder is
very short proportionately. These fans were

SILK FANS 193

generally made with a leaf of some textile fabric,

silk, net, gauze, satin, and lace being all used.

Sometimes they were painted, but so many were

decorated with spangles that those otherwise

decorated may be considered exceptional. In

addition to the ordinary round or oval spangles

there were many other shapes, flowers, stars,

leaves, and crescents. Also there were panels

stamped out of matted gilt metal, which exactly

fitted one side of the fold, so that when open the

fan had the appearance of fretted metal backed

with net. The variety of these fans was endless,

and they are often very dainty and attractive,

taking their places as accessories to the costumes

of the time in a very delightful way. They run

through all shades of colour when made of silk,

the favourite tones being a rosy red and a rather

deep bluish green, the red being more often

decorated with gold spangles, while either gold

or silver is used for the green. Metallic threads

are also often introduced. The spangles were

worked into very elaborate patterns sometimes,

but it by no means follows that the involved

designs are the most successful. Sometimes crude

attempts at representing figures are attempted

by means of silk applique on gauze, the dresses

being liberally bestrewed with the inevitable

spangles and the flesh painted in gouache. On

the whole, the most satisfactory are the least

pretentious ; for instance, a red taffeta silk fan

with two rows of small gold spangles round the

194 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

top, between which is worked in still more minute
spangles a Greek key border. On the field of
the leaf they are distributed freely, graduating
from very close set rows near the top to about
an inch apart near the shoulder, which is out-
lined by two close set rows. The bone, dyed
a deep crimson, is fretted and inlaid with gold
plaques, the guard is fretted, backed with gilt metal
and set with ruby pastes surrounded by gilt beads.
However, the more ornate, though heavy in
appearance, were not so actually, and no doubt
harmonized with the costumes with which they
were intended to be worn. They are sometimes
of the most extreme elaboration ; not only are
the sequined designs very intricate, but the
groundwork consists of a combination of materials,
such as silk and gauze, or silk and net, the silk
portion being further inlet with cut lace or tulle.
Mica and gelatine insertions were not uncommon,
and the inventiveness of the makers found an
outlet in combinations and devices more ingenious
than artistic. The thin materials were most
usually black or white, but sometimes the gauze
was coloured, and then the fan maker had
additional arrow in his quiver, and gloried in a
kind of cross chequer of combination, using golden
spangles on the red gauze and silver on the
green.

Another charming specimen, probably of English
make, is of white gauze, the spangles arranged
borders to tiny oval appliques of satin, seven ii

SPANGLED FANS 195

number, and painted cameo fashion, blue and
white. Oval silver spangles are arranged as
laurel wreaths, and a powdering of gold stars
dotted equidistant covers the ground. The mount
is of simply pierced ivory, and the guards have
Wedgwood jasper cameos inset, framed in very
finely cut steel ; the ivory of the guards is
pierced and backed with thin gold metal, hardly
thicker than paper, stamped in a tiny diaper
pattern. Some of the mounts are made of bone,
dyed a curious saffron shade, some are also dyed
green ; but I do not recollect having seen one
dyed blue, and blue silk leaves are not common.

The lorgnette fans described elsewhere belong
to this type of fan, and are decorated in much
the same way.

The guards of Empire fans were often pierced
and inlet with small pseudo-cameos of Wedgwood's
jasper, glass, or jet. Cut steel stars and ovals
were also ornaments which were much used,
but the greater number were simply fretted and
backed with metallic foil, either plain gilt or
coloured.

Expanding Fans.

These fans were intended to be carried in
the hand-bag or reticule — " ridicule " to the
scoffers — which was so generally carried by
ladies of polite society during the first half of
the nineteenth century. The leaf was not
attached to the sticks, on which, when closed,

196 FANS OF VARIOUS TYPES

it slipped up and down. When the fan was
extended it was held firmly in place by the
angle of the sticks, and was of the size and had
the appearance of an ordinary fan. One in my
possession is of sandalwood, with a green paper
leaf, which is pierced by a star-shaped punch,
so that the effect is similar to that of a powdering
of star-shaped spangles. This is probably only
about eighty years old, but they were made
much earlier, and in more elaborate designs,
though not, I think, with hand-painted leaves
of high quality.

Theatre and Opera Fans.

There were many varieties of these, which
were not, as one might imagine, an especially
fine fan suitable for full-dress performances
at the opera, but rather ordinary plain-looking
fans, on which were printed a list of sub-
scribers, together with the numbers of their
seats or boxes. Lady Charlotte Schreiber, in
her " Fans and Fan Leaves, English," comments
on the rarity of more than one seat being regis-
tered under one name. An early example gives
the plan of the King's Theatre in 1788, when the
Duke of Cumberland occupied with the Duchess
the centre box in the pit tier ; above them the
Duke and Duchess of Gloucester ; on the next
tier higher the Prince of Wales and Mrs.
FitzHerbert had a box, in which the Duke of
York had a seat. About this fan the following

OPERA FANS 197

advertisement appeared in The Times, Tuesday,
January i, 1788 : —

THE OPERA FANS

To the Subscribers and frequenters of
The King's Theatre

Last Saturday were published according to
Act of Parliament.

The delivery however was put off until the re-opening of
the Opera House next week for the purpose of presenting them
in the best state of improvement.

These FANS, calculated to present at one view both the
number of boxes, including the additional ones, names of
subscribers, etc., have been carefully compared with the plan
of the house as kept at the office and will be sold only by the
Proprietor,

Mrs. H. M., No. 81, Haymarket,

where she will receive with respectful gratitude any commands
from the ladies and wait on them if required.

Another gives the plan of the Opera House
in 1797. In this plan Mrs. FitzHerbert is shown
to have a box to herself, the Prince of Wales
and the Duchess of Marlborough have two each ;
others with a box to themselves are the Duke of
York, the Margravine of Auspach, the Marquis
of Queensbury, and Thos. Coutts, Esq. It was
published by N. Cock.

ORIENTAL FANS
MADE FOR
THE EUROPEAN
MARKET

CHAPTER IV<

ORIENTAL FANS MADE FOR THE
EUROPEAN MARKET

IT is almost a certainty that the first folding
fans of the semicircular type, to which for the
last two hundred and fifty years the greater
number of European fans have belonged, were
introduced into the West from China (which
was most probably their original home) by the
Portuguese in the beginning of the sixteenth
century. In those days the voyage to China
was a very long and adventurous journey
round by the Cape of Good Hope, but the pros-
pects of trade were bright, and King Emanuel of
Portugal sent an embassy under escort of eight
ships of his fleet to Peking and obtained a limited
permission to trade, Canton being the specified
port opened to him. The English having no
direct trade with China, it is most probable that
the plaited Oriental fan was an expensive and
scarce luxury until the days of Charles II. His
Queen being a Portuguese, and therefore able
to obtain Chinese goods, such as lacquer, cabinets,
and painted wall papers, with comparative ease,

201

202 ORIENTAL FANS

brought numerous examples of such Oriental
curiosities with her, and they became fashion-
able fads, and with them came, no doubt, the
fans. Evelyn recounts in 1664 how he went to
a collection of rarities brought by the East Indian
ships for the Jesuits of Paris. Among them were
" fanns," such as were used by English women,
but with much longer handles. These are men-
tioned as rarities, showing that at that date many
of them had not reached England. Direct English
commercial intercourse with China only began
in 1735 with the union of the two East India
Companies, and from that date to 1834 an enor-
mous amount of trade was carried on between
the two countries, practically entirely through
the port of Canton.

With fans so extremely fashionable in Europe,
naturally enough large numbers of them were
imported by the Company. They were a part
of the stock-in-trade of the East India shops,
who made a speciality of such toys and trinkets
imported from the Orient as pleased the tastes
of their fashionable clientele. Tea, porcelain
" images," and the equipage of the tea-table,
India paper and fans were all sure of a ready sale.
On the whole, though quite expensive in many
cases, these imported knick-knacks were looked
on as hardly dignified enough for rooms of state
or for full-dress occasions, and Chinese fans, how-
ever beautiful, would not have been considered
correct for use at Court ceremonies.

CHINESE FANS 203

The greater number of the fans which came to
Europe were of a very inferior type to those
which were appreciated in China. The subtlety
and delicacy of the decoration which appealed
to the connoisseurs of the Celestial Empire was
not understood by either the merchants who
bought the goods in Canton, nor by their European
purchasers. So, as with almost every other kind
of craft work which found a European market,
special goods were made for export far inferior
in style and execution to those which met with
native approval. In many cases the decoration
is coarse and rough, often slovenly and careless ;
but the principal fault of most of the " Canton "
goods is over-elaboration and a mass of un-
necessary and trivial detail. Where a decorative
masterpiece (in the opinion of a Chinese) might
bear simply a few strokes so placed as to indicate
a thought of the artist's mind, or even a few
characters of exquisite writing placed with con-
summate skill in absolutely the right spot, the
fans intended for the " Europe Trade " are packed
with figures, and meaningless objects are intro-
duced just for the sake of filling a certain space
and giving an appearance of elaboration.
" Mandarin " fans (so called) of vivid colouring,
with the faces painted on applied ivory, were,
and I believe still are, sold at a higher or lower
price according to the number of faces which
they contain.

The fans imported ;n the eighteenth century

204

ORIENTAL FANS

were often either sketched in ink with a brush
and filled in with colour, or were printed with
the requisite outline from a copper plate (an
accomplishment taught the Chinese by the Jesuit
missionaries), and afterwards hand-coloured. It
is often extremely difficult to decide by which
of these processes the decoration has been carried
out. The brush lines are so thin and wiry that
they often look almost as if printed or drawn
with pen and ink. If, however, a high-power
magnifying glass is employed, the different quality
of line will at once be noticeable. An etched
line is always a trifle raised, because in printing
the ink is held in the grooves of the plates and
the paper forced by pressure into these to absorb
the ink ; a brush line is laid on the paper and is
quite flat. On the other hand, a print from a
wood block shows the lines impressed into the
paper, and the design is a little depressed.
Japanese fans are very often printed from wood
blocks, and are either coloured by hand, or the
colours are added by successive impressions from
other blocks.

The sticks of the simpler eighteenth-century
fans are often of ivory, well finished, but seldom
elaborately decorated, though some have lacquered
guards ; the head of the guards is often of a
different material to the rest of the stick.
Carving or perforating is not a usual form of
decoration, but a little inlay is sometimes resorted
to, to give a touch of ornament to an otherwise

PSEUDO-CHINESE FANS 205

plain stick. Bone and wood and bamboo were
used for the cheaper qualities ; sometimes the
bamboo is lightly washed over with a reddish
semi-transparent lacquer, on which a design
in black, with touches of gold, is sometimes
drawn.

The Dutch, during the eighteenth century,
were very fond of using Chinese designs on their
" brise* " ivory fans in the " Vernis Martin "
style. There is so much difference in the type
of painting that they would not be likely to be
mistaken for Oriental workmanship, the painting
being in oil colour, which was not in use on Chinese
fans. There is also a curious difference in the
way that faces are drawn. An Oriental always
seems to manage to impart something of the
style of his own visage to the setting in of the
eyes, and similarly a European rarely gets the
contour of a Chinese or Japanese quite right,
though it is hard to specify the point where the
difference lies.

The greater number of the Oriental fans
imported before the middle of the nineteenth
century were those with black outlines, either
drawn with the brush, etched or printed from
wood blocks as described above, ivory fans orna-
mented with pierced or carved work, and the
painted " Mandarin " fans. There were, of
course, other kinds, such as the fan of feathers
of the Argus pheasant, which is exhibited in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, bris£ fans in filigree

ORIENTAL FA>

enamel, and a fair number of lacqi
these are far less m

The first kind are often sorposingiy rough
and slipshod in execution, especially as regards
the colouring, which is in many cases quite as
perfunctory and inartistic as the worst of their:
European contemporaries ; in fact, it almost seems
as if the merchants had taken out some of the
European fans as «*mplgs of the type of thing
likely to be popular, and (Hke the Chinese tailor
who copied the old coat, even to the patches]
and «*«"•*) the fan makers had purposely
the slap-dash methods of the English
giris, who hastily applied the vivid colours
woe supposed to beautify the etched outlines
issued by Gamble, Pinchbeck, and Chassereau.
However this may be, there is little of interest
in the actual Mafisjiianship of these leaves,
They have, however, a certain historical value,
as they show a phase of eighteenth-century taste,
which swallowed wholesale any kind of rubbish
which was labelled: " In the Indian Taste,"
These were the goods which the wiry " toy men "*
and "toy women" were able to foist upon
foolish fashionables, fike the extravagant young
couple shown in Hogarth's "Marriage a la]
Mode."

The carved ivory fans are, as a rule, quite
good examples of dexterous craftsmanship,
is noteworthy that it is extremely rare for a
of European workmanship to have any

CHINESE IVORY FANS 207

on unpierced ivory. When the work is apparently
cut out of the solid, dose examination will gener-
ally reveal that the work has really been accom-
plished by fretting the outline, carving it up,
and backing the result with a thin layer of ivory.
In most cases there is no disguise about the
matter, and the backing is of foil or gilt metal,
so as to show up the design. It was, of course,
a much quicker method of working, and many
pretty effects were obtainable. Chinese fans,
however, though the sticks are often pierced and
carved, generally are solid as to the guards, and
the relief is obtained by removing the ground
with drills and miniature carving tools. The
designs are, as a rule, Chinese in character, often
full of tiny figures, occupying themselves among
a background of temples and trees; sometimes
scenes of Chinese history or legends of saintly
personages are depicted.

Many of these fans were executed in European
designs of Louis Seize character, but for some
reason they are never exact copies of their models,
which is curious, as the Chinese excel in imita-
tions ; possibly the tools used were not suitable
for what was required, but the relief is seldom
so well managed as in the French examples,
which give the appearance of full modelling with
extremely slight relief. In Chinese fans, unless
there is depth enough to give a representation
in the half-round or even slightly undercut, the
carving shows details by merely incising the

208 ORIENTAL |FANS

outlines ; whereas his French compeer shows
something of the medallist's art in the skill with
which all the planes are indicated with the veriest
modicum of relief and no undercutting. Some
of these ivory carved fans are of the circular
kind, the guards being prolonged and held together
in the hand, so that the inner sticks, which are
of only about half the length, form a round
screen. On these fans the work is of an extra-
ordinarily minute character and delicacy, but
though miracles of expert craftsmanship, they
are seldom more than mere tours de force.

The ivory sticks of the " Mandarin " fans are
generally of a similar character as to design and
workmanship to the brise' fans described above.
They are almost always mounted with a paper
leaf, decorated on both sides with Court scenes,
crowded with numerous figures engaged in various
occupations. The background, which consists,
as a rule, partially of interiors of palaces, recep-
tion rooms, and so on, and partly of landscape,
is painted in vivid hues in gouache. The various
personages are attired in costumes appropriate
to their rank and station, in minute portions of
silk, satin, and other fabrics cut to the shapes
required and gummed into position, the necessary
details being added by means of painted lines.
The faces, and in some cases the hands, are formed
of tiny ovals of ivory, on which are painted with
very minute detail the features which are suitable
to the characters represented. They are all

"MANDARIN" FANS 209

different, even where as many as a hundred
appear on one leaf, and in some cases they appear
to be, if not portraits, at least painted so as to
give the correct type of face for the persons
shown. There is often much interesting detail
of an ornamental character in the borders and
fillings. The colouring is vivid, and, as a rule,
gives a general effect of a preponderance of royal
blue and emerald green ; but many other brilliant
shades are introduced, a bright rose and vivid
orange being much used, especially in the borders.
These fans have generally elaborate tassels, and
are often found in the original lacquer boxes.
They are seldom more than a hundred years old.

STICKS

CHAPTER V

STICKS

THE most valuable part of early European fans
was the handle or stick, which was often of
precious metal, or, if of less costly material, was
so ornamented as to become the most important
portion. It was far more permanent than the
rest of the fan, which, whether the screen part
consisted of vellum, paper, or feathers, would
have a more transient existence, being, however,
easily replaced. There are constant references
to the silver handles of fans in Elizabethan plays
and documents.

For the sticks of folding fans the precious
metals are not so suitable, and ivory from the
time when they were first popularized was the
favourite material ; it was light, strong, and
flexible, and while sufficiently beautiful in itself
to be satisfactory if left unornamented, it lent
itself well to various methods of decoration, such
as carving, painting, staining, piercing, and various
other devices.

The sticks of the earlier fans did not afford
so large a field for the display of carving and the

213

214

otfc

;: —

STICKS

ru:

tie leaf and the head, they are the same width.

at the lover cad rather

to a sfancfc
the head B of a

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, with so orach cist;

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216 STICKS

The type of design was the rococo, often carried
to its extremist limit. Some fan sticks show in
their small compass a most wonderful amount
of detail of the kind characteristic of this style.
Take the fan shown on Plate III. The ivory is
carved and perforated, and slightly stained in
parts. The design includes four groups, each of
a lover and a richly costumed fair lady, three
reserves painted with minute landscapes, birds
of rich and extraordinary plumage, scrolls, wreaths,
arabesques, festoons of flowers painted in their
natural colours, and many other items. The
whole is a veritable compendium of the style of
ornament in vogue, and yet it does not appear
crowded or excessive because it is so well balanced.
Certainly these inconsequent curves and arabesques,
these amorini and grotesque birds and meaningless
wreaths and festoons are much better suited
for a small frivolous object, such as a fan, which
could be shut up or laid aside when it no longer
pleased, than for large scale decoration works
such as panels of walls and ceilings.

However, the fan just described is, compara-
tively speaking, a simple specimen. At this
period there were many other materials used
besides ivory ; mother-o'-pearl was often em-
ployed with very rich effect ; tortoiseshell inlaid
with gold, and gold incrustations. But the chief
glory of the more elaborate sticks lay in the
intricacy of the design and blending together of
the different materials and methods of decoration

MOTHER-O'-PEARL 217

to form a complete whole of wonderful richness.
The master craftsmen who expended their skill
in carrying out their chef-d' ceuvres for the use of
the ladies of the Court of Louis XV were adepts
at devising the most suitable technique to display
the qualities of the different materials employed.
Pique was used to decorate many ivory and
tortoiseshell sticks, gold most usually for the
pale or blond tortoiseshell, and silver or gold for
the dark shell. Wonderful was the skill that
went to the building up of the mother-o'-pearl
into sufficiently large pieces to make the sticks
of a fan (because, of course, no one shell gave a
sufficiently large surface without a join), and the
incrusted work of shell or gold on to ivory or
shell. In many cases the ornament is carved
in the pale bluish shell, partially gilt and silvered,
and backed with a thin sheet of richly coloured
pearl ; tortoiseshell was sometimes used for the
top layer. In either case the two layers will
hardly exceed a thirtieth part of an inch in
thickness.

Some fan sticks are very extreme in their
deviation from regularity. In these cases the
right and left portions differ in all their details,
nothing is the exact counterpart of anything
else ; but the balance of the whole is so skilfully
maintained that the lack of symmetry does not
strike the eye at the first glance, and it is only
on closer examination that it is discovered that
no element of the patterns repeats exactly.

218

STICKS

The majority of fan sticks, however, though
differing in the working out of minor details,
such as the paintings in the reserves, the postures
of figures, and the flowers of garlands, show
the general scheme reversed right and left,
in other respects the artist's imagination ran riot
amid the endless variety of curves and exotic
detail.

Not all Louis XV sticks by any means show
the rococo style carried to its extremist limit.
Many, especially the early and late fans, are much
simpler in design, only showing indications of
the vagaries in which the fashionables of the
moment indulged.

The actual carving was necessarily the work
of very skilled craftsmen, the material, whether
ivory, tortoiseshell, or mother-o'-pearl, being often
thinned down until it was no thicker than a
visiting card, and the relief at its thickest being
only about the thirty-second of an inch. The
thickness of the twenty-two inner sticks of the
fan described above does not amount to three-
quarters of an inch, yet the features of the faces,
the details of the garments, and the plumage of
the birds are quite distinctly modelled. In some
cases the appearance of relief is increased by
rubbing a little pigment into the crevices, thus
apparently deepening the shadows. As a rule,
however, the craftsman relied on his skill alone
to obtain the desired effect, and the tiny cupids,
nymphs, dancing fauns, cavaliers, and ladies owe

THE ROCOCO SYTLE 219

nothing of their attractiveness to any trickery
of the kind. Sometimes all the carved work is
coloured in natural tints or gilt, but more often
the figures are left in the natural tone of the
material, being thrown into prominence by the
coloured tracery round them. On the reserves
or irregularly shaped panels, left unfretted, land-
scapes, flower pieces, or figure groups are painted,
these sometimes taking the form of miniature
conversations galantes, pastorelles, or dancing
figures a la Watteau. Gorgeously plumaged
birds or animals enacting in a grotesque manner
some incident from a fable also are to be
found as part of the decoration of the small
panels.

The style of ornament of the sticks is sometimes
a curious contrast to the painting of the leaf.
The playful fancy and airy lightness of the tracery
of the ivory work is of a very different inspiration
to the oftentimes somewhat ponderous classical
scenes which it supports. There is far more
harmony of effect when the leaf is a painting
in the style of Watteau or Fragonard. This
want of unity of conception certainly detracts
from the effect of many of these fans, if we are
judging them as complete works of art. It may,
perhaps, be accounted for by the fact that while
the ivory work was carried out in the country
by one set of workers, the leaves were painted
by a totally different set of craftsmen, mainly
in Paris.

220 STICKS

The carving of the French ivory sticks was
principally done at Dieppe, which had long been
famous for its ivory carvers and turners. The
trade was handed on from father to son ; tiny
toddlers would amuse themselves by shaping
trifles out of the waste pieces of bone and ivory,
thus unconsciously learning the intricacies of the
craft, which was in a large measure hereditary,
certain families being especially renowned for
their artistic talents.

The sticks were not ornamented or coloured
at Dieppe, only the carving and piercing being
carried out there. Specialization and sub-
division, which we look upon as rather a feature
of modern industry, was decidedly in evidence
in the fan-making trade, as the bone and ivory
was prepared and roughly shaped in other towns
and villages of the Department of Oise before
reaching Dieppe. Sainte Genevieve, Audeville,
Laboissiere, Crevecceur, and Meru were places
where wood, bone, ivory, mother-o' -pearl, and
other materials were prepared for the Paris
market. Thus at every point of their manufac-
ture the sticks were treated by hands which were
extremely skilled in the particular operations
on which they were engaged, which accounts
for the perfection of technique displayed, and
also, perhaps, for the frequent failure to reach
an artistically satisfying result.

The cost of fans at this period is given in an
extremely rare and curious book published at

PRICES OF FANS 221

the Hague in 1754, " The Journal du Citoyen,"
quoted by M. Uzanne.x

" Fans in gold wood " [gilded wood, perhaps],
"9 to 36 livres the dozen ; those in pali-
sander wood only 6 to 18 livres. For Fans in
wood, half ivory, that is, the chief sticks in
ivory and the gorge in wood, one had to pay as
much as 72 livres ; for those entirely made of
ivory, 60 livres ; and even 30 to 40 pistoles a
dozen ; the mounts were of perfumed leather
or paper, and the frames were often enriched
with gold, precious stones, and painted enamels."

Besides the very elaborate and expensively
decorated sticks, which were only adapted for
Court and ceremonial use, there were simpler
varieties, which were suitable for the less ornate
leaves used by ordinary folk, and by the nobility
for " undress " occasions. Naturally cheap
printed leaves, which cost a few francs or shillings
only, would have looked very out of place mounted
on the delicate tracery and gilded open-work,
which was eminently suitable for a hand-painted
skin mount. For these cheaper leaves the sticks
were very often quite plain, the wood, bone,

1 The Fan, English trans., 1884, p. 79.

It appears as if by " Fan " the sticks only were intended.
There is also a curious discrepancy in the price of one of the
items, 72, perhaps, is a misprint for " 42 " — the reference being
to the fact that in a very large number of cases the ivory of the
inner sticks stops short at the shoulder, where it is joined with
extreme dexterity to a slip of wood to which the leaf is fastened.
These, of course, ought to be cheaper than the all ivory. How-
ever, I transcribe the quotation word for word, as given.

222

STICKS

ivory, or horn being simply polished. Others,
especially French fans, were painted somewhat
roughly with flowers and festoons. But this
kind of painting is very different from the delicate
workmanship which ornaments really fine sticks ;
the colours are dabbed on hastily, the shading
is extremely perfunctory, and there is little
attempt of drawing or design ; the sole object
appears to be to diversify the surface.

The ivory sticks used for many English fans,
on the other hand, are generally extremely well
finished, and are pleasing in effect. It is, in
fact, rather curious that such excellent sticks
should have been used for the very rough paper
leaves. As a rule, the only ornament of these
sticks is a head of some different material, which
has a pleasing effect. Thus ivory has sometimes
a tortoiseshell head, wood has an ivory head,
tortoiseshell is often combined with pearl shell.
A pattern of stick sometimes met with has a waved
outline something like the body of a sea-serpent
or other marine monster, and a fish's head, the
rivet being made to serve as the eye.

There were many skilled craftsmen in England
throughout the eighteenth century who confined
themselves to the making of fan sticks. When
printed leaves were so numerous it was doubtless
the more paying part of the trade.

It is rather interesting to note that stick making
was considered at least as important as the
painting of the leaf in England at the time of the

OF ENGLISH MAKE 223

grant of Arms to the Worshipful Company of Fan
Makers, " or Fan-stick Makers " is added in the
description of the Arms as recorded in the
Company's Minute Book. The crest consists of
a complete fan, and a complete fan is included
on the shield ; but the tools shown are all those
used by the stick makers : the shaver for thinning
the ivory, the saw for piercing the fretted devices
so usual in the early eighteenth century, especially
in English fans, and the bundle of finished sticks.
Neither palette brushes nor leaf is shown, which,
I think, shows the relative importances of the
two branches of the industry in the eyes of those
responsible for the designing of the Arms — pre-
sumably the ruling officers of the Company.

Some sticks appear to have been imported
from China, or else European stick makers had
learnt to copy the sticks of Oriental fan makers
very accurately.

There were also sticks which may be considered
intermediate between the dress fans and the
quite plain ones ; tortoiseshell very slightly deco-
rated with pique in silver is a very suitable stick
for a mourning fan, with a leaf ornamented by
a pen-drawing in Indian ink. There are also
some very pretty simple ivory sticks, which have
a delicate design carried out on them in a kind
of lacquer in a style reminiscent of Oriental
work.

To return to France.

" Le Roi est mort—Vive le Roi ! " Louis XV

224

STICKS

is no more, and Louis XVI reigns in his stead.
In truth, the style Louis Seize had been fore-
shadowed for some years before his accession to
the throne of France ; the more restrained type
of decorative art had long had its devotees. The
discoveries at Herculaneum had set the lovers of
classic art on a new track, the general lines were
more severe, even to the verge of attenuation.
Once again we find everything in pairs, both sides
exactly alike, and festoons of the same length
and depth, mathematically accurately reproducing
each other. Instead of cartouches of irregular
outline or panels bounded by irresponsible and
often meaningless curves, we find ovals, circles,
hexagons, or other pre-determined shapes. Cor-
rectness was the order of the day, and originality
and individuality were somewhat at a discount.
There still remained, however, the dainty charm
and perfect finish which were the result of genera-
tions of workers handing down their acquired
skill to sons and apprentices, but there is less
spontaneity in the outcome. The design seems
imposed on the worker by another mind, with
which he was not in complete sympathy. It is
less direct, and the results are not so enjoyable,
however much we may appreciate and admire
them.

The principal kind of ivory ornamentation was
a kind of open-work which the artisans of that
time called ceuvre mosaique. This term is not
the same as our word " mosaic," but conveys

LOUIS XVI 225

a totally different idea. The design consists of
two parts : the background and the reserves.
The ground is pared extremely thin and then
pierced. The perforations, as a rule, take the
form of closely set slits, or a diaper pattern,
forming a background to the reserves, which
may take the form of medallions or such sub-
jects as trophies, festoons, amorini, figures, busts,
or groups ; these were left in silhouette rather
raised against the thinner pierced groundwork,
and were afterwards carved more or less finely,
so that when finished they are in very low relief,
but still a trifle higher than the ground.

In a number of cases the reserves are filled
with figure subjects, copies from Wedgwood
jasper ware, either painted on a flat ground in
imitation of the " cameos," or carved in relief
and the ground painted blue. Wedgwood first
produced his blue jasper ware, which he used
for imitating antique gems, about 1775. The
small cameos were enormously admired, and
were exported in large quantities to the Continent,
where they were used as personal ornaments,
and also for setting in small boxes, etuis, and such
things. The larger sizes were inlet into furniture.

These little medallions after Wedgwood con-
tinued to be used as part of the ornamentation
of fine fans for many years. Small coloured
miniatures were also sometimes introduced, but
not so generally as in former times. Sometimes,
too, the carved medallions were gilt, which has

226

STICKS

a very rich effect against the delicate tone of
the fine ivory.

The Revolution had a very disastrous effect
on the fan-stick makers. For the prosperity of a
trade like theirs — which was essentially a luxury
trade — it was necessary not only that there should
be first-rate skilled workmen and purchasers with
plenty of money to spend on their productions,
but also that the clientele should possess a refined
and delicate taste, and have the time and leisure
to devote to attaining the degree of connoisseur-
ship necessary in order to appreciate good work.
With the Court gone, the surviving aristocrats
penniless or emigres, and the financial resources
of the country at a low ebb, there was no demand
for their skill. Many turned their attention to
other trades, no apprentices were taken to carry
on the tradition, and the making of fine sticks
practically ceased.

The coarsely printed and painted leaves which
were de rigueur during the days of the Republic
demanded equally roughly-made sticks, and they
are mostly mounted on common wood or bone.

When the Imperial Court was formed many
of the ceremonies of bygone days took a new
lease of life, dress fans were again required, and
there was a certain demand for more soigne
sticks. But the taste of the nouveaux riches
naturally was rather in the direction of showy
devices than fine workmanship, and most of the
sticks of this period are of a type which, though

STEEL ORNAMENTS 227

often pleasing and attractive at first sight, does
not improve on acquaintance.

A very favourite form of decoration consists
of small plaques of highly burnished steel let
into the bone or ivory. They are very thin,
being just like spangles without the central hole.
They are of various shapes and sizes, generally
rounds or stars, a rather long printed oval is also
used. The designs are, as a rule, quite simple,
and do not usually extend over more than one
stick. The leaf of the Empire fan being generally
deep, it follows that the stick from the head to
the shoulder is short, which leaves but little
space for important ornament. The top of the
shoulder is rounded, which is almost invariably
the sign of a late stick, though the sticks of Vernis
Martin fans and those with flat sticks painted
with ornament in a similar style had a slightly
curved shoulder ; but this has a different effect
from the " high shouldered " nineteenth-century
type. The material, generally ivory, bone, or
horn, is pierced, but seldom carved, and the
guards are often ornamented by piercing, backed
by foil, either matt gold or silver; but steel
guards with small facets are often employed
where the steel inlets are used on the inner
sticks.

There is one good point about these Empire
fans, the stick is generally in perfect keeping
with the leaf. Probably the simpler style of
stick in vogue led to the whole fan being carried

228 STICKS

out in one workshop, or at least under the
direct supervision of the fan maker.

There were also made at this period some
extremely expensive fans for Court use. In these,
again, the same note is sounded. The money is
spent on gold and gems ; delicate finish and fine
workmanship were at a discount, and though
these have a certain historic interest, their artistic

value may be said to be nil.

. ' -

FAN MAKING

AND

FAN MAKERS

CHAPTER VI

FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

NOWADAYS so much is done by machinery that
handwork is at a discount. A piece of material
is put into one end of a machine, and the finished
product comes out complete in every detail.
Quite satisfactory, but hopelessly dull !

The very best work, however, still, as it always
has been, is the product of the skilled craftsman,
interested in making the result of his efforts
satisfactory, not only to his employer, but also
to himself, and often the worker is the more
difficult to please. Generally, such a craftsman
turns out things which are delightful to make
and delightful to possess. We read of eighteenth-
century workmen creeping back at night, lantern
in hand, to feast their eyes on the perfect result
of the day's toil. " When I get to heaven what
shall I do ? " one of them is reported to have
said. " Surely the Saints will not use fans !
And I cannot be happy unless I am at work."

Not all of the eighteenth-century fans, however,
were the result of individual effort. Vast numbers
were made of the cheaper varieties, and in order

231

232 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

to produce a sufficient stock to supply the home
market, and also the large quantity for export,
division of labour was resorted to, many work-
people carrying on their employment in workshops,
where, though there was hardly anything in the
way of machinery, the manufacture was much
accelerated because the different processes could
be carried out consecutively by parties of workers
handing on the fan from one to another as each
process was completed.'

Roughly, the makers of a fan may be divided
into three divisions (though there were many
other industries connected with the trade) : —

The Painters,
The Mounters,
The Stick Makers.

The mounters had two sides to their work : the
preparation of the leaf for the decorators, and
the fixing of it to sticks when complete.

The reproductions of eighteenth-century prints
(Plates XXV, XXVI, XXVII), show how
this team work was carried out with regard
to paper leaves (though sometimes papier
was used for a leaf of any material). The
descriptions of the processes involved may
easily be followed with the aid of descriptions
translated from those that accompany the
originals, which are in the Library of the Victoria
and Albert Museum. It will, no doubt, be a

PREPARATION OF LEAVES 233

surprise to many people to find that the double
papers were glued together before the decorating
and mounting was begun, and the means employed
were very ingenious. Of course, if water-colour
decorations had first been done and then the
stretching, with the necessarily included thorough
damping of the leaf, the whole painting would
have been ruined by the wet.

The workers of those days believed in carrying
out every detail for themselves, and it is notice-
able that even the glue was prepared on the
premises by boiling down shreds of hide and
skin until a gelatinous substance was obtained,
something like size, of sufficient consistency to
stick firmly, yet not so hard but that it could be
separated by the proper tool used by skilful
hands. This is a tool something like a very
narrow paper-knife, with finely bevelled edges so
smoothed off that no roughness remained to
catch and tear the leaf.

The hoops or " rondes " on which the leaves
are stretched are in reality, it will be noted, only
half-circles, and on these the papers when stuck
would be held as firm as the parchment of a
drum, affording not only an excellent surface for
the painter's brush, ready to show every touch,
no matter how fine, but also when the time came
for folding they were of a stifnsh consistency,
and took and held the marking of the folds most
perfectly ; bending, but not breaking.

The second plate is not reproduced, as it

234 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

possesses few features which are of special interest.
It represents the fan painters at work. A work-
woman is seated at a table with the paper
on a desk, and an appliance for holding the copy
in a convenient position before her eyes. There
is a second desk, and arrangements for another
worker. The furniture of the room and the
dress of the women show that their position was
a superior one to those who were carrying out
the more mechanical details of stretching the
leaves. The room has the appearance of a well-
appointed office.

The third and fourth plates deal with the
mounting of the leaf after it has been decorated,
and, of course, the decoration may equally well
be a painted design, printed from an etched or
engraved plate, a sketch washed in in sepia or
bistre, or a drawing executed in pen and ink ;
the after-treatment would in each case be the
same. The whole process can be followed in the
illustrations and better understood from them
than from a written description, and it will, I
think, be very clear how deft-fingered these
eighteenth-century workpeople must have been
to carry out all these manipulations, leaving the
fan firmly fixed, yet as lightly treated and as
destitute of traces of the glue as if carried out
by a fairy's fingers. Fan makers are a wonder-
fully dexterous race, and to-day, though, of course,
they have the advantage of improved workshop
appliances, there are workers who carry out

THE ATELIER 235

delicate repairs in a way little short of marvellous.
For instance, if a piece has been torn, burnt, or
hopelessly ink-stained, they can cut that piece
of the leaf out and let in another so exactly the
same in tone and surface that without a magnify-
ing glass the repair is invisible.

For getting the fold correctly at the present
day there is a mechanical appliance which carries
out the work neatly and quickly with perfect
evenness, so the grooved board shown in the old
engravings is only in occasional use for dealing
with antiques.

The leaves, if of chicken skin or vellum, had
to be specially prepared and fined down so as
to be tough yet supple, and selected so as to
show no flaw or extra thickness in the part which
would finally take shape as a fan leaf. They
were stretched on boards ready for the painters,
because it is essential that the decoration be
applied before the fan leaf is mounted. The
painter was in most cases a superior workman,
who possessed considerable skill in copying, if
not in originating those graceful compositions
of figures and scenery which adorn the leaves.
The finest work of all was probably done by
individual artists working at their own studios
or homes, but most painters attended the work-
shops there to carry out the directions of the
proprietor. The paintings were carried out in
water colour or gouache, but the latter certainly
preponderates.

PLATE XXV.

Fan making. See p. 246

1. Preparing the Leaf.

2. Appliances and Tools.

PLATE XXV.
•237

STICK MAKING 239

The mounting of the skin fan was, to a certain
extent, carried out as described above, but in a
good many cases these leaves were mounted
d I'Anglaise — that is to say, there was no
lining, the sticks being simply attached to the
back of the leaf by gum or elastic glue. The
decoration of the back, which, of course, was
generally fairly simple, was carried over the
sticks, this part being painted after the mounting
was done.

Of course, for the stick there was the same
division of labour. The ivory, tortoiseshell, or
bone was roughed out into shape by one set of
workers, handed on to another, who, with the
aid of a shaving iron, thinned the material down
to the necessary degree of attenuation. This had
to be done proportionately, for the ivory is
thickest at the rivet end, thinning off towards the
shoulder in order to allow for the thickness of
the leaf. A little extra thickness was left if
the stick had to be carved to show a design in
relief. It next had the design marked out and
passed into the piercer's hands, who, with a fine
drill, made starting holes into which he inserted
the blade of his piercing saw ; with this, which
had a fine blade set in a frame not unlike a
fretsaw, but with a much narrower bow, the
superfluous ground was removed. Sometimes this
completed the decoration, especially in the case
of early and late fans. In many of the late
eighteenth-century fans all the ornament they

240 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

had consisted of the piercing of the sticks. But
in the case of elaborately worked sticks the
carver had his work to do next, and he was one of
the most skilled of all the workers, because he
had to rely on his own hand and eye alone in
carrying the work a stage further. It depended
on whether the carving was to remain in the
natural tint as to what degree of delicacy should
be imparted to the finish ; when it was to be gilt
or painted a less refined touch was used, because
high finish would have been wasted when veiled
by the gold leaf or applications of colour.

In the best fans the gilding was of very high
quality, and put on in so many layers that it is
spoken of as " encrusted/1 It has quite the ap-
pearance of solid metal repoussee and applied,
but such a course could only be pursued on the
comparatively solid fabric of the guards, where
also carving, inlays, and other decoration could
be done on a less ethereal scale. Gold and silver
leaf were both used ; gold remains untarnished,
but the silver has generally faded to a dull coppery
or blackish shade. The gilding was either matt
or dull, or else brilliantly burnished by means
of pressure applied with a hot burnisher.

If there were any paintings in the reserves,
they were generally carried out before the gilding.

In the case of mother-o'-pearl fans, the deli-
cately carved openwork was often backed by an
extremely thin skin of richly coloured pearl shell,
sometimes natural in colour, sometimes dyed to

FAN CASES 241

enhance the rainbow tints. Against this back-
ground the gilded relief stands out with sharp-cut
edges, and has a far better effect than if the
carving were actually in one with the background,
because the delicate smoothness of the surface
is necessary for the proper play of iridescent
colours, which add so much to the beauty of shell-
work. Pearl is also very brittle, and the backing
adds to the strength.

Pearl sticks were the most expensive, as the
material was difficult to work, and the joining
of the pieces to obtain the necessary area was
an added labour.

It appears to have been customary for the
fan maker to colour and decorate the sticks at
his workshop, but the initial stages were carried
on elsewhere.

Many fine fans are found in beautifully decorated
cases, but these, though provided by the fan
maker, were not made by him, but by a class of
workman who did nothing else but make leather
covered cases for etuis, silver, and other valua-
bles. They were known as " gagniers," and
belonged to a long established trade. Many of
these cases are beautifully ornamented with
impressed and gilt designs, and being lined with
delicate toned satin or velvet, and trimmed with
fine gimp, they are worthy receptacles for their
exquisite contents.

The eighteenth-century fan maker not only
believed in advertising in different newspapers

PLATE XXVI.

Fan making. See p* 248*
i Folding the Leaf,
a Hie Leaf in Various Stages.

xxvr

TRADE CARDS 245

and magazines — the Craftsman had many such
announcements — he also had his trade card.
Sometimes, as well as carrying on business as a
fan maker, he dealt in other commodities, such
as tea, silks, Indian goods, and the various trinkets
and trifles which went to make up the stock of
the " toy man " of those days. Many of the
trade cards are quite interesting, showing en-
gravings of fans of the time. Francis Chassereau,
an important man in the early days of George I,
and perhaps earlier (he was a member
of the Court of Assistants of the Worshipful
Company of Fan Makers), had a very charming
and distinctive card with a square frame of
laurel leaf, and a small extended fan typical of
the kind of fan used in the early part of the
eighteenth century.

No doubt these cards were very useful in those
times when even important and well-to-do trades-
people humbly attended at the residence of the
nobility to ask their commands concerning goods
which they had for sale. One can imagine with
what pleasure on a dull morning a lady of fashion
would receive one of these cards and the announce-
ment that " Mr. Chassereau waits below ; he
has brought some of his latest fans, if your
ladyship would be pleased to look at them/'
Then the trim tradesman, neatly wigged and
brushed, would show his finest wares, not perhaps
displeased if her ladyship was content to believe
that they were all straight from France, though

246 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

many were made in his own English workshop.
It would be a poor morning's work if he went
away without an order for a fan or two, perhaps
a fine hand-painted leaf with choicely pierced
sticks, perhaps merely a print of his latest etched
plate, hand coloured, and mounted on ivory
sticks, which were to have some painted decora-
tion on them, and a little gilding to suit her
ladyship's taste for something rather more elabo-
rate than the plain bone or wood which most
people thought good enough to use when out
walking in ordinary morning dress.

Not that Chassereau would really approve of
these printed leaves in his heart of hearts, they
were poor things, and to some extent spoilt the
trade in better-class work ; still, ladies bought a
great many of them, and they were not unprofit-
able. If he did not supply them, others would,
he no doubt thought to himself, as he briskly
passed on his way back to his shop in the Strand.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES
XXV, XXVI, XXVII

[These plates are reproductions of three out of four illus-
trations which trace the different stages through which a fan
leaf passes from the time it entered the atelier as a sheet of
paper to the final appearance of the finished fan.]

(Translation from the Eighteenth-Century
Original.)

PLATE I. — The vignette represents the interior
of a workshop where the fan papers are glued

THE WORKSHOP 247

and prepared. This workshop is a large room
with a fireplace, in order to obtain the heat
necessary for preparing the glue from shreds of
hide. The ceiling has to be provided with
numerous wooden beams at a height of about
seven or eight feet. The lower part of these
beams is fitted with hooked nails, in order that
the hoops on which the glued papers are stretched
may be suspended.

Figure i represents the girl who does the gluing
by filling a sponge with glue from the earthenware
pot before her. The papers are then placed two
and two, the glued sides together. The plate
shows a pile of glued papers, the earthenware
pot for the glue, dry paper not yet treated, which
is made into piles of a dozen or a gross, and a
pile of glued paper.

Figure 2 shows the " raiser/' who separates the
pairs of glue sheets from each other and stretches
them on hoops to dry. She has at hand the pile
of double sheets provided by the gluer, a double
leaf stretched on a hoop, a receptacle containing
water, a sponge to damp those parts of the
paper which are to be attached to the hoop.

Figure 3. — The workwoman, called the
" stretcher," takes the hoops, which are prepared
by the raiser, and places them on the hooks.

Figure 4. — The " cutter," when the papers are
dry, takes the hoops one by one and, removing
the papers, piles them on the table ; the empty
hoops are placed on the floor.

. . _

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248 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

Figure 5. — The " rounder off," who cuts off
the angles of the paper with scissors.

Figure 6. — A stone and mallet similar to those
used by bookbinders are also shown, these are
used to brighten gilt fan papers.

Figure 7. — A drawing of the tool known as a
" sonde," or probe. It is a kind of copper ruler
rounded at both ends, and with very rounded
edges. It is thirteen or fourteen inches long.
In the illustration the centre part is not shown,
as it would be too long to show in its entirety.
The other objects can be identified from the
account given above.

PLATE II (not reproduced) shows a room in
which two women fan painters might be accommo-
dated. (It is well furnished in the style of the
first half of the eighteenth century, with presses,
tables, and chairs.)

Figure i shows a painter at work painting
a leaf.

Figure 2. — Various utensils.

PLATE III. — Mounting fans.

To mount a fan is to connect the leaf and the
stick.

The vignette represents a room where two
workpeople are carrying out the principal opera-
tions of their trade. There are several large
presses, which serve as stores.

Figure i. — The workwoman who makes the
rays of a leaf with a tool something like a bur-
nisher, called a " jetton."

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY METHODS 249

Figure 2. — A woman working with a " sonde,"
or probe.

Lower half of Plate III.

Figure i. — The prepared and painted leaf as
delivered to the workwoman, called the " moulder."

Figure 2. — The mould or shape. This is a
piece of walnut wood, into which are cut twenty
grooves radiating from the same spot ; the
grooves are about the eighth of an inch in breadth
and depth. The bottom of the grooves is an
acute angle. All the rays should be exactly
equal distances from each other, and in the case
of the small shapes they occupy a little less than
a semicircle.

Figure 3. — Large mould which gives a semi-
circle. In both moulds the centre is indicated
by a tiny copper plate, pierced with a hole, so
that the exact centre shall be accurately pre-
served.

Figure 4. — Shows the method of finding the
centre of a leaf, which is not always in exactly
the same place as that used by the painter, and
marked by him with the cardboard compasses
shown on Plate II, because it is the duty of the
mounters who carry out their work perfectly to
arrange matters so that the heads of figures or
other principal objects are not placed on a fold.
To avoid this they move the leaf to and fro on
the mount, so that the right side (which faces
the wood) is arranged in such a way that the
heads and other principal objects are neither in

PLATE XXVII.

Fan making. See p. 253,
The Final Stages.

250

PLATE XXVII.
251

FINISHING PROCESSES 253

the grooves nor in the exact middle of the inter-
mediate space. In this position it is steadied
by a piece of marble or other weighty substance.

Figure 5. — Illustrates the raying of the leaf
as shown in part marked i of the vignette.

The leaf having been arranged as above described,
the workwoman holds the leaf in her left hand,
and takes a pressing tool known as a " jetton "
in her right hand, drawing it along the grooves
into which she presses the paper, which by this
means is worked into rays.

Figure 6. — The " jetton," made of silver or
copper of the size of a 24-sous piece.

Figure 7. — A similar tool with a handle.

PLATE IV.

Figure 8. — Leaf completely marked with rays,
from which the gorge has been cut off almost
entirely with scissors.

Figure 9. — The " pinching " process, which
consists of folding the paper where marked by
the radiating grooves, the right side of the
painting being on the outside.

Figure 10. — The " folding " process, which con-
sists of dividing in two the spaces which were
left between the folds already made.

Figure n. — The " probing " process (Sonder),
which consists in introducing the tool shown,
Fig. 7, Plate I, between the papers on the right
side of each fold, so that the sticks may be inserted.

Figure 12.— Folded fan ready for cutting off
any excess of paper on the last fold.

254 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

Figure 13. — The final cutting of the gorge.

Figure 14. — " Threading," or inserting the sticks
in the openings prepared by the probe.

Figure 15. — Cutting the upper side of the fan,
which removes any of the leaf which projects
beyond the guards.

Figure 16. — Putting a little band of paper along
the top on the other side of the leaf.

Figure 17. — Finished fan.

THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF
FAN MAKERS

It appears that when fans were introduced into
England they were for the most part imported,
at first from the East, later from Italy and France ;
and therefore English makers of fans, if such
beings existed, were few and unimportant.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century,
however, there were a certain number of English
fan makers, who were later augmented by the
influx of skilled craftsmen, tradesmen, and artisans
driven to this country from France by religious
persecution. They must soon have become
a fairly numerous and important body, for by
the beginning of the eighteenth century it was
worth their while to petition for a charter, which
was granted to them by Queen Anne. It bears
the date April 19, 1709, and was the last to
be granted to any City Company.

The charter, as preserved at the offices of the

FAN MAKERS COMPANY 255

Worshipful Company of Fan Makers, is engrossed
on parchment, and is a lengthy document setting
out the purposes of the Company and the duties
of its officers and members. Bound up with it
is a full-length portrait of Queen Anne in gouache,
presented in 1714 by one of the members named
Earle. It is of considerable interest, as pre-
sumably the painter was an English fan painter,
to judge by the name, and it was painted at a
period from which few actual English painted
fans have survived. It shows Her Majesty
standing by a table, on which is laid the charter.
The colouring is full and rich, the pigment is
heavily applied, and the vehicle used gives the
painting a thick, almost pasty, appearance ; the
whole effect is not unpleasing, though as a work
of art it cannot be rated very highly.

The charter was rebound in red morocco
towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Most unfortunately, the early records of the
Society have disappeared, the Stamp Book of
Admittances only dating back to 1747, and
beginning with the number 839. Thus there is
no complete list of members available. There-
after appear some names familiar to collectors
of printed fan leaves, but a great many of the
later admittances are of persons who did not
follow the trade of fan maker.

Among the entries are found : —

Richard Simmonds, 1750. At his house in London
Bridge. Ribbon weaver.

PLATE XXVIII.

Early nineteenth-century English Fan. Silk
leaf, with applied medallions printed in colour
on satin. The central one is a domestic scene
after Fragonard ; at the sides, Cupid making and
sharpening arrows. Pierced ivory sticks, with
steel inlets, and painted reserves after Wedgwood.
Steel guards.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

256

257

FAN MAKERS COMPANY 259

848. Abraham Hadwin, living with Mr. Saml.
Cook, in Russell Street, Covent Garden,
admitted July 2, 1750.

882. Francis Ghassereau, Junr. Admitted the

3rd day of November, 1755. Fan maker.

883. Robert Clarke, admitted the I2th September,

X755> at Mr. Clarke's in Bell Sauvage
Yard, Ludgate Hill.

(This is a name often found on fan boxes,

generally of paste-board covered with pink or

green paper, enclosing printed fans, of which

Clarke was the publisher.)

" 936. Sarah Ashton, admitted ist February,

(She conducted business for herself for a
time, and was afterwards in partnership with
Hadwin.)

There were several stick makers who belonged
to the Company, among them : —

865. Mr. Joseph Simmonds. Admitted June 3,

1751. At Mr. Cocks', in Saint Martins
le Grand. Stick maker.

866. Mr. William Goe, admitted the I7th day of

June, 1751. Stick maker.
888. Mr. Thomas Goe, admitted the first day of

July, 1751. In Bethnal Green. Stick

maker.
880. William Adams. Admitted the 7th day of

October, 1754. Stick maker at Mr.

Delamotto's in the Strand.

260 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

(This may possibly have been a descendant
of Peter Motteux, who carried on the business
of importer of East Indian goods at the sign
of the Two Fans in Leadenhall Street. He
translated Don Quixote, and died in 1722.)
1061. James Broome, of No. 24, Gloucester
Row, Hoxton, admitted the 3oth day
of April, 1804.

From some notes referring to members of the
Court we learn some earlier dates of admissions : —

266. John West, admitted December 13, 1710 ;
a member of the Court of Assistants
in 1749.

(This is an interesting entry, because having
been admitted so soon after the granting of
the Charter, it shows that the Company must
have been fairly numerous at its foundation.
It is rather surprising that there should have
been two hundred and sixty-six persons em-
ployed in the fan-making trade in 1710 in
England.)

519. Francis Qhassereau, Senr., admitted Decem-
ber 4, 1721, a member of the Court of
Assistants in 1749.

(He designed several etched fan leaves.)
720. Abraham Cock, admitted January 5, 1740.

(He belonged to a family which had several
members in the fan-making business down to
the beginning of the nineteenth century.)

IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN FANS 261

In its early days the Company was probably
very zealous in promoting the interests of its
members, but the minutes of these activities have
not survived, and during the latter part of the
eighteenth century the Court appears to have
met only to part, as the Minute Book merely
records the names of those present at the meeting,
and gives no account of any business transacted,
so there is little of interest to be gleaned from
the accounts of these gatherings.

About the only exception is on July i, 1779,
when Mr. Robert Clarke represented to a meeting
of the Court of Assistants that the " importation
of French and foreign fanns daily increased/*
and as a remedy it was arranged that " advertise-
ments should be inserted in the Public Papers
and Hand Bills delivered setting forth the per-
nicious tendency of such proceedings," and a
subscription was agreed on to defray the expenses.

This question of the importation of foreign
fans was naturally a most important one to
English makers, and the Company had long been
alive to the danger. At the beginning of the
Minute Book begun in 1775 some one has written
some notes bearing on the subject. They are
headed : —

" Observations of the Importation of French
or Foreign Fans.

" Calpins for Fans (Mounts). By the nth
George the First Chapter the Seventh Calpins

PLATE XXIX.

Vernis Martin. Mid-eighteenth century. Painted
with a " Feast/' The lower part decorated in
the Japanese taste.

M. Duvelleroy.

262

2G3

PENALTIES FOR IMPORTING FANS 265

for Fans are rated in the Custom House Books
at Seven Shillings and sixpence a Dozen the
Duty paid on Importation is one shilling five
pence seven eights per dozen. And besides if
made of leather and the leather be the most
valuable part. For every twenty shillings of
the real value upon cash the Duty upon importa-
tion is six shillings.

" By the I2th of Charles the 2nd Chapter the
fourth Fans for women and children (French
making) are rated in the Custom House Book
at £2 per dozen and the Duty paid on importation
£1-5-0 per dozen.

" BUT if the Fans are painted they are pro-
hibited to be imported and are seizable as
painted wares."

The prohibition of embroideries under various
statutes is also noted, and the penalties stated,
and the statutes relating to the importation of
gold and silver fringes and lace are quoted ;
these were liable "to be forfeited and Burnt,
and £100 paid by the importer of every parcel
so imported."

" By the Act of the 6th of Ann Chapter igth.

" Silks wrought or made with gold or silver
or materials clandestinely imported are forfeited
with £200 by every importer and £100 by the
Receiver Seller or Concealer.

r' Upon which Act it appears that either Mounts
or Fans that are painted are seizable and that

266 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

Fans or Mounts Embellished with Gold or Silver
are Prohibited under very severe penalties Par-
ticularly under the Acts of the 4th of Edward 3rd
and the I5th and 22nd of George II."

" Observations on the Commercial Treaty with
France which took place the loth day of May,
1787.

" Schedule D in the Book of Rates. It is
expressed Paper Hangings for Rooms for every
£100 Imported there shall be paid £75 per cent.

" Paper not otherways particularly enumerated
or described for every £100 Value £55 per cent."

" Toys For every £100 value £33 per centum.
" Query as plain fans may be imported do
they not come under the Denomination of Toys ? "

" Schedule D all other goods, Wares and Mer-
chandise whatever not being particularly enum-
erated or described or otherwise charged with
Duty not prohibited to be imported or used in
Great Britain and not being exempted from
Duty, for every £100 value thereof £27-10-0
per cent."

" By which it appeareth Paper Fans Mounts
plain cannot be imported without paying a
Duty of £55 per cent. And that Plain Fans
cannot be imported without paying a Duty of
£27-10 per cent.

" Or if they are Imported as Toys £33 per cent."

FAN MAKERS COMPANY 267

The arms of the Company (as given in the
Minute Book of the Worshipful Company of
Fan makers, 1775) are rather different from
those shown in a bookplate of about 1750, but
the general idea is the same.

" Company of Fan Makers or Fan Stick Makers.

" Arms. — Or a fan displayed with a mount
of various devices and colours the sticks gu :
on a chief per pale gu and az on the dexter side
a shaving iron over a bundle of sticks tied together,
or ; on the sinister side a framed saw, in pale
of the last.

" Crest. — A hand couped ppr holding a fan
displayed or.

" Motto.— Arts and Trade United."

Of late years the Company has consisted, to
a certain extent, of members connected with
the industry, and includes some members who
are interested in fans from the artistic view-
point, but the majority consists of those who
are " fan makers " in name only.

Its activities, however, have included several
exhibitions and competitions, which have been
held with a view to the resuscitation and encour-
agement of the Arts and Trades of fan making
in England.

The master fan makers of Paris had a corpora-
tion of their own similar to our City Guilds or
Companies. It was founded in the reign of

268 FAN MAKING AND FAN MAKERS

Louis XIV in 1673, and its Patron was St. Louis.
It was governed by four jurors, and in order to
be admitted " master " it was necessary to have
served an apprenticeship of four years and to
have produced a chef-d'oeuvre to the satisfaction
of the governing body ; a sum of 550 livres had,
moreover, to be paid. There were exceptions to
this rule, whereby widows, sons, and sons-in-law
of master fan makers, as well as those marrying
the widow of a " master," obtained the privilege
on easier terms.

By the middle of the century there were in
Paris about a hundred and fifty master fan
makers. It was the golden age of the fan, and
many of them were rich and important trades-
people.

The Fan Makers* Corporation was united to
the toy dealers, and the musical instrument
makers by an edict of the nth of August, 1776,
and the same edict included the painting,
varnishing, and other subsidiary callings, which
were necessary to these trades.

SOME

FAN PAINTERS,

PRINTERS,

AND DESIGNERS

CHAPTER VII

SOME FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS,
AND DESIGNERS

IT has often been remarked that it is very singular
that few painted fan leaves are signed by the
artist. In all probability, however, the greater
number of them were the work of painters who,
while possessing considerable skill in copying and
adapting designs suitable for the decoration of
fans, had very little either individuality or origin-
ality, and occupied the position of superior
artisans. Many doubtless were painted by women,
and in most cases the work appears to have been
carried out in " ateliers " or workshops. There-
fore in the following list few painters' names
occur. The greater number are those of designers,
engravers, or publishers of printed fans. I hope
that it will be found useful to many collectors
of such fans who may possess leaves from which
the imprint has been cut wholly or in part in
the course of mounting. For though subsequent
to the year 1734 all engravings were obliged to
bear the name of the publisher and the date of
publication, it frequently happened that these

271

272

FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

particulars were removed during subsequent
manipulations. Owners of such examples may,
by reference to this list, be able to identify
the subjects, and be able to refer them to a
publisher or designer, thus adding much to their
interest.

Agar. Engraver. The Oracle of Apollo ; Jupiter ;
Tarquin and the Sibyl ; The Widow. (Printed
fans.)

Andre, Eug. Signature on Lithographed Fan.
Three Medallions of Village Life.

Angrand. Publisher. Fan with nine medallions,
containing female figures representing the
Five Senses and the Four Seasons. (Printed).

Arevalo, Cano de. Spanish fan painter to
the Queen of Spain at the end of the seven-
teenth century.

Ashton, Sarah. Publisher. Duchess of York,
1792 ; Botanical Fan, 1792 ; The Casino Fan,
J793 > Conundrums, 1794 ; The Way of
the World, 1796 ; School for Scandal, 1796 ;
Shakespeare's Seven Ages, 1796 ; The
World grown Old and Crazy. (Printed fans.)

Ashton, Sarah and Co. Publishers. Conun-
drums, 1797. (Printed fan.)

Ashton & Co. Publishers. Female Seven Ages,
J797 » The Quiz Club, 1797 ; The Lady's
Adviser, 1797 ; Grotesque Subjects, 1797.
(Printed fans.)

AND DESIGNERS 273

Ashton, S. & Co. Publishers of A Dance Fan,
1798. (Printed fans.)

Ashton and Hadwen. Publishers of Conundrums,
1800 ; The Union, 1801 ; Peace Restored,
1801 ; Divertissement pour tout Age, 1800.
(Printed fans.) Sarah Ashton was admitted
a member of the Worshipful Company of
Fan Makers February i, 1770.

Badini, Charles Francis. Designer of Fan-
ology, 1797. (Printed fan.)

Balster, T. Publisher of Fan in Honour of
George III, 1789 ; Queen's Royal Fan, 1821 ;
The Map of England. (Printed fans.) He
was admitted as member of the Worshipful
Company of Fan Makers in December, 1777.

Barlow. Engraver of Royal Concert^ (after
Cruiksharik), 1781. (Printed fan.)

Bartolozzi, F. Engraver of Theft of Cupid's
Bow ; Cupid and Psyche, 1779 ; Cupid and
Arabesque 1780. (Printed fans.)

Baylie, Ann. Fan maker. Warehouse woman.
" At the Golden Fan and Sun at Chidley
Court, near Carlton House, Pall Mall."

Bella, Stefano Delia. Engraving of a Hand-
screen, in the centre three Couples dancing
a Country Dance. (Schreiber Collection.)

Belleteste, Jean Antoine. Maker of ivory
fan mounts. 1787-1832. Catalogue descrip-
tif critique et Anecdotique des Ob jets (a

274 FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

Trianon) sous les Auspices de SM I'lmperatise

(Eugenie), 1867. No. 70, " Un 6ventail sculte

a jour." (M. S.)
Belli, Fra. " Invenit et Facit." The signature

of a fan decorated on one side with ten

medallions representing Venus receiving from

the Tritons the tributes of the sea ; on the

other side five medallions of subjects in the

Pompeian style. (M. S.)
Benizy. Designer and Engraver of Charade

Nouveau. (Printed fan.) S. C.
Birman, A. P. Publisher and Designer of

Marriage of Duke of York, 1791, George III,

1791. (Printed fans.)
Boitard, Louis Pierre. Fan in the Schreiber

Collection. Pen drawings of Cupids engaged

in Vintage. Signed " Boitard 196."
Boucher. Many fan leaves are attributed to this

master, generally on very insufficient grounds.
Bunbury, H. W. Drawing of The Minuet

at Bath, reproduced on a French fan in

the Schreiber Collection.
Burney. Designer of The Oracle of Apollo,

Jupiter. Tarquin and the Sibyl. The Widow.

(Printed fans.)

Cahaigne. 1766. A fan finely painted in

gouache is thus signed. (M. S.)
Canu, Jean Dominque Eteinne. Engraver,

born at Paris 1768. " The Horse Race,"

AND DESIGNERS 275

"The Lasso/' "Negro Labourers," "El
Mendigo." (Printed fans.)

Car don. Engraver of George III, with Nelson
and Britannia. (Printed fans.)

Carracei, Augostino. Etched Designs for
Hand-screens.

Carre, Mdle. Alida. Dutch fan painter
eighteenth century. (Siret. Dictionnaire des
Paintres de toutes les ficoles). M. S.

Chassereau, Francis. Designer of Pleasure-
boat, 1739 ; Garden Scene, 1741 ; Capture of
Porto Bello, 1740 ; Shepherd and Shep-
herdess, 1741. (Printed fans.)

Chassereau, Francis, Senr., was an early and
important member of the Worshipful Com-
pany of Fan Makers. He was admitted
December 4, 1721, and was a member of
the Court of Assize in 1729. Francis Chasse-
reau, Junr., was admitted November 3, 1758.

Chaudet. Designer of Fan with Medallions
in Honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. (Printed
fan.)

Chodowiecki, Daniel. Designer and Engraver
of Frederick William II ; Apotheosis of
Frederick II. (Printed fans.)

Cipriani, G. B. Designer of Orpheus and Eurydice,
Toilet of Venus. (Printed fans.)

Clark, S. Designer of View of Greenwich,
1740. (Printed fan.)

Clarke, Robert. Publisher of Fanology,
1797 ; Love Scene, 1795. (Printed fans.)

276

FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

A Robert Clarke was admitted member of
the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers
in 1756. His address is given as of " Mr.
Clarke's in Bell Sauvage Yard, Ludgate
Hill."

Clarke & Co. Publishers of Gipsy Fan ; St
James's Park, 1741 ; King's Theatre, 1788.
(Printed fans.)

Clarke & Simmons. Publishers of Eventail
de Charades, 1791. (Printed fan.)

Cochin, Nicholas, the elder. Engraver of a
Hand-screen with the subject of the Triumphal
Return of David with the Head of Goliath.

Cock & Co. Publishers of Trial of Warren
Hastings, 1788 ; Heraldic Fan, 1792. (Printed
fans.)

Cock, J. Publisher of The Minuet, 1782 ;
Lieutenant- Colonel Tarleton, 1782. (Printed
fans.)

Cock, John & Co. Publisher of Medley of
Puzzles, etc., 1791. (Printed fans.)

Cock, John and Crowder (J. P.). Publisher
of Drury Lane Theatre, 1794 ; The Alle-
gorical Fan, 1794 ; Ten Country Dances and
Five Cotillions, 1793 ; Almanack, 1796 ;
English History, 1793 ; History of France,
1793 ; The Oracle, 1800. (Printed fans.)

Cock, William. Publisher of The Original
Fanology, 1791 ; New Opera Fan, 1797.
(Printed fans.)
There were several persons named Cock

AND DESIGNERS 277

who were members of the Worshipful Company
of Fan Makers : Abraham Cock, admitted
January 5, 1740. John Cock, of Wood Street,
admitted December 5, 1759. Wm. Cock, ad-
mitted November 5, 1778. Abraham Cock the
younger, admitted March 19, 1795.
Coker, B. Lord Howe's Victory, June i, 1794.

(W. R.) (Printed fan.)

Cooper, Robert. Engraver of Children with
Dog ; The School for Scandal, 1796. (Printed
fans.)

Cortona, Pietro da Berrettini, 1596-1667,
is said to have painted a fan which was
shown at the Exhibition of Fans held in
Drapery Hall, 1878.

Coustellier, Fernando Y Compia. Fabrica di
Abanicos, Paris ; El Telegrafo de Amor ;
Floral fan. (Printed fans.)

Desameaux, Charles, flourished 1680. This
name is found spelt in several ways : " De
Hames," " De Hantes," " De Heaulme,"
etc. Jal mentions this master as being in
1656 " Marchand Edvantaillier et Ellumineur
ordinaire de sa Majeste." (M. S.)

Desparcs, F. Claude Lectere. " Fan Maker
to His Majesty," circa 1680. (M. S.)

Dyde and Scribe. Publishers of Road to
Ruin, Charade Fan. (Printed fans.)

278

FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

Elizabeth, Princess. Designer of The Rest

by the Wayside. (Printed fan.)
Elven, J. P. Engraver of Medallions of Ships.

(Printed fans.)

Fleetwood, J. The Wheel of Fortune.
(Printed fan.)

Fontaine. Designer of Fan with three Medal-
lions in Honour of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(Printed fan.)

Franks, H. Engraver of Parliamentary Fan,
1741. (Printed fan.)

French J. Publisher of Church Fan, 1770.
(Printed fan.)

Gamble, M. Publisher of Orange Fan (Marriage
of Princess Anne with William of Orange,
1734), published 1733 ; Henry VIII (after
Hogarth), 1743 ; Harlot's Progress (after
Hogarth), 1732 and 1733 ; The Church of
England Fan, 1732-3 ; An Excise Fan, 1733 ;
Chinese Scene, 1738 ; Moses Striking the Rock,
1740 ; Damsel mourning the Loss of her
Lover, 1739 ; The Sailor's Wedding ; Piping
Shepherd, etc., 1739 ; Pastorelle, 1738 ; Romeo
and Juliet, 1742 ; Haymaking, 1744. These
are all printed from etched plates.

AND DESIGNERS 279

Germo, Leonardo. Fan painter. Flourished at
Rome about the beginning of the eighteenth
century. A fan bearing his signature, with
the subject of Venus and Adonis, is in the
Victoria and Albert Museum ; another, also
signed, painted with the " Triumph of
Mordecai," was shown at the Exhibition of
South Kensington 1870 ; still another, painted
with an allegorical subject, belongs to Lady
Northcliffe. (W. R.)
Giordano, Luca. Painter. " La Renommee des

Dieux et des Deesses." (M. S.)

Godefroy. Engraver of Fan with Medallions in

Honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. (Printed fan.)

Goupy, Jose. Fan in Schreiber Collection, with

Three Views in Rome. Signed with his

name, followed by " 1738 N. A." His fan

is included in the English Section. He was

a fashionable water-colour painter principally

of architectural subjects.

Guiducci, Angelo. " The Five Senses."

" Guilielmus, Dominus de Erqustan pinx,

1673." The above signature is found on a fan

painted with the Judgment of Midas. (M. S.)

Guillot, Jacques. Fan maker to the King

(Louis XIV), flourishing circa 1680. (M. S.)

Hadwen, J. Publisher of Allegory on the
Triumph of Spain, with Spanish inscrip-
tion : " Publicada segun la ley pr. I. Hadwen,

280 FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

cort de la Corona, Cheapside, London/*
(Printed fan.) He was admitted as member
of the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers
November 5, 1772.

Hammond. Designer and Engraver of The
Progress of Love, late eighteenth century.
(Printed fan.)

Herault. Hand-screen in honour of the birth
of the Dauphin, 1729. Inscription : " Per-
mit d'inprimer 23rd September 1729."

Herndly, Wm. Fan painter in Leicester Square.

Hincks, W. Engraver of George III. (Printed
fan.) >

Herman, Christoph Fridr. Set of four Hand-
screens representing Ballet Dancers.

H. M., Mrs. Publisher of The Opera Fan (King's
Theatre), 1788. (Printed fan.)

Hollis, M. Publisher of The Casket Scene from
the " Merchant of Venice," 1746. (Printed
fan.)

Hylton, Richard. Publisher of The New
Nassau Fan, 1733. (Printed fan.)

S. Publisher
(Printed fan.)

of Pensez a Vous, 1796.

Jenner, J. Publisher of Ruins of a Church ;
Woman riding pillion behind a man, who
is talking to a priest. (Printed fan.)

AND DESIGNERS 281

Jones, Chas. Publisher of Perpetual Almanack,

1788. (Printed fan.)
Joucy, Jacques. Fan maker to the King (Louis

XIII), flourishing circa 1680. (M. S.)

Kauffmann, Angelica, R.A. Designer of Fan
in Honour of Alexander Pope ; Theft of
Cupid's Bow ; Shakespeare's Tomb, 1790.
(Printed fans.)

Kerr, D. Publisher of " Fortune Telling by
Cards," or the new Gipsy fan.

Kleiner, S. Designer and Engraver of " Vienna,
1756 " ; Three Medallions printed on Silk.

Kymli. Painter to the Elector Palatine. Ex-
hibited at " Le Salon de la Correspondence "
in 1779 the " Toilet of Venus," painted on
a fan (quoted by M. S. from " Nouvelles de
la Republique des Lettres et des Arts," Paris,
1779).

Lasinio, Conte Carlo. Copy of fan leaf by
F. Bartolozzi, " Aurora." (Printed fan.)

Le Brun. Fan attributed to this master was
sold about 1884 in Spain. It represented
fhryne before her Judges. It had for-
merly belonged to the Duke of Medina-
Coeli. (M. S.)

Legrand, Pierre. Fan maker to the Duchesse
d' Orleans, circa 1663.

282 FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

Louvion, J. B. Engraver of Landscape, Shep-
herd and Shepherdess with Two Peasant
Women. (Printed fan.)

La Vega, Fo. Fan painter. Two fans in
Schreiber Collection, representing the entry
of Charles, King of the Two Sicilies, into
Naples, 1734, and a Review at Gaeta, 1734,
drawn with the pen in bistre and washed
with Indian ink.

Martin, F. Publisher of Heraldry Fan, 1792.

(Printed fan.)
Martini, P. Engraver of The Royal Family at

the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1789.

(Printed fan.)
Maurer, W. "The Pyramid of Babylon."

(Printed fan.)
Moncornet, Balthasar. Publisher. Hand-screen

with the subject of the Triumphal Return

of David with the Head of Goliath.

Neele, S. T. Engraver. History of France,
1793 ; History of England, 1793 (Printed
fan.)

Onkruit, Theodore. Flourishing as fan painter
about 1660 at La Have. (M. S.)

AND DESIGNERS 283

Ovenden. Engraver. Heraldic Fan, 1792.
(Printed fan.)

Parr, N. Engraver. Ranelagh, 1751. (Printed
fan.)

Persier. Designer. Fan with Medallions in
Honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. (Painted
fan.)

Pi chard. " Tr£s connu pour la feuille d'E van-
tail ; il a chez lui d'excellents originaux,"
quoted by M. S. from " 1'Almanach d'indica-
tion et d'adresse personnelle."

Pinchbeck, Jonathan. The Fan and Crown
in New Round Court, in the Strand. Pub-
lisher of The Nassau Fan, 1733 ; Royal
Repository ; Grove at Bath, 1737 ; Bath
Needles, 1757 ; The Reason for the Motion
'Satire on Walpole), 1741 ; Humours at New
Tunbridge Wells, 1734 ; Vauxhall, 1737 ; The
Dumb Oracle ; Courteny Fan, 1732 ; The Old
Man's Folly, 1734 ; The Old Maid ; Amours
of an Old Bachelor, 1734. (Printed fans.)

Poggi, A. Publisher of Portraits of the Royal
Family at the Royal Academy, 1789 ; Cameos,
1780 ; Children with Battledores, 1788 ; The
Power of Love, 1780 ; Cupid and Psyche,
1799 ; Children with Tops, 1788 ; Victory,
1782. (Printed fans.)

Preston, J. Publisher of Royal Concert, 1781.
(Printed fans.)

284

FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

Ramberg, P. Designer of The Royal Family
at the Exhibition of the Royal Academy,
1789. (Printed fan.)

Ready J. Publisher of Prince and Princess of
Wales, 1795 ; Female Seven Ages, 1797 ;
Progress of Love (undated) ; The Good Swain,
1790 ; The Good-for-Nothing Swain, 1795 ;
The Altar of Love ; the Ladies' Bill of Fare ;
The Selection of Beaux. (Printed fans.)

Renau, M. le Chevalier. Designer of Gib-
raltar. (Etched.)

Romanelli. Signature on a fan belonging to
Mme. Jubinal de Saint- Albin (Paris). Subject :
The Rape of the Sabines.

Sayer, Robert. Publisher. Ranelagh, 1751.
(Printed fan.)

Setchel, J. F. Publisher. Bartholomew Fair.
(Printed fan.)

Simpkins. Engraver. Road to Ruin ; Charade
Fan ; Royal Emblems. (Printed fans.)

Speren, G. Publisher. Pump Room, Bath ;
J737 ; Orange Grove, Bath, 1757. (Printed
fans.)

Springsguth, Junior. Music. (Printed fans.)

Springsguth, S. Engraver. Duke of Welling-
ton. (Printed fan.)

AND DESIGNERS 285

Stokes, Scott, and Croskey. Publishers. Sur-
render of Valenciennes, 1793 ; New Carica-
ture Dance Fan for 1794 ; New Puzzle Fan,
1794. (Printed fans.)

Stothard. Designer. Lieutenant-Colonel Tarle-
ton, 1782 ; Young Girl and Doves. (Printed
fans.) One of his designs — Three children
with a dove and cage — is reproduced on a
French fan in the Schreiber Collection.

Strange, Sir Robert. Engraver. Prince Charles
Edward Stuart, and Allegorical figures ;
Cameron of Lochiel as Mars and Flora
MacDonald as Bellona, 1745. (Printed fan.)

Sudlow's Fan Warehouse. Publishers of Royal
Wedding, 1795. (Printed fan.)

Thielcke, H. Engraver. "The Rest by the

Wayside." (Printed fan.)
" Tiquet facit." The signature on a fan in the

Sale Catalogue of the Walker Collection
which represents " Personages of the Court
of the Regency playing Blind Man's Buff."

Uwins. Designer of Neptune and Britannia
with George III. (Printed fan.)

Vaughan, Edward. The Necroman Trick Fan,
1734. (Printed fan.)
15

286 FAN PAINTERS, PRINTERS

Voiriot, Les. Fan painters. Pierre flourishing
about 1639 ; Claude, son of the above ;
Nicholas, son of Claude, flourishing about
1679. (M. S.)

Watteau. Doubt has been expressed as to
whether the great master ever painted fan
leaves. Many have, however, been attributed
to him, often on very slight grounds. M. S.,
writing in 1884, refers without name or date
to a " recent sale " in London, where a fan
painted by Watteau, representing a f£te at
Versailles, reached the sum of 12,500 frs., and
another, which was sold in Spain, formerly
the property of the Princess Adelaide of
Savoy, by the same master, " Une F£te a
Cythere," which was sold for 3,675 frs.
Here again the name and date of the sale
is not given, and I am unable to verify
either.

Weight man, Thos. Publisher of Portrait of
Duchess of York, surrounded by dance music,
1791. (Printed fan.)

Wells, Lewis. Publisher and Engraver of
" Gretna Green " ; Views of Margate, 1798 ;
Engraver of Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton.
(Printed fan.)

Wilson, George. Designer and Engraver of
Ladies' Bill of Fare ; A Selection of Beaux,
1795 ; A Collection of Beaux, 1795 ; The

AND DESIGNERS 287

Good Swain, 1795 ; The Good-for-Nothing
Swain ; The Union, 1801 ; The Peace, 1801 ;
Adviser and Moralist, 1797 ; The Lady's
Physician ; The Quiz Club, 1797. (Printed
fans.) The Ladies' Bill of Fare was pub-
lished in two versions ; that issued on I4th
February, 1795, bears the inscription : " Pub-
lish'd as the Act direct (sic) by G. Wilson."
A very similar design bears the inscription :
" Geo. Wilson del*. London, Published Feby.
20, 1795, by J. Read, 133, Pall Mall." The
Seven Ages ; The Female Seven Ages.

A John Wilson, of Gary Street, was admitted
a member of the Worshipful Company of
Fan Makers 7th December, 1757 ; he may
have been the father of George.

Xavery, Francis. This name and the date
" 1763 " occurs on a fine painted fan belong-
ing to a Monsieur Vanneer, subject : " An
Affianced Pair led by Hymen to the Altar
of Love." (M. S.)

In the above list where the initials M. S. or
W. R. are appended to the particulars given, it
indicates that the authority quoted is Le Livre
de Collectioneurs (Maze Sencier) or the History
of the Fan (Wooliscroft Rhead)

SOME BOOKS

OF INTEREST

FAN COLLECTORS

CHAPTER VIII

SOME BOOKS OF INTEREST TO FAN
COLLECTORS

I AM not calling these notes a Bibliography,
because a list of the books which contain
something bearing on one or other aspect
of the subject would include hundreds of
volumes, of which the overwhelming majority
would not be of the slightest use to people who
collect the comparatively modern European
folding fan. By far the greater number of refer-
ences would be to the ceremonial and ecclesiastical
fans, which have so much of interest for the
archaeologist, but which lie outside the period
which produced those which form the subject
of this volume.

Rondot, Natalis : " Rapport sur les Ob jets
de Parure, de Fantaisie et de Gout, fait a la
Commission Fran$aise du Jury Internationale
de 1'Exposition Universelle de Londres." 8vo.
Paris, Imprimerie Imperiale, 1854.

Blondel : " Histoire des Eventails chez tous
les Peuples et a toutes les Epoques. Ouvrage
illustre de 50 Gravures et suivi de Notices sur
1'ficaille, la Nacre et 1'Ivoire." 8vo. Paris,

391

292 BOOKS FOR FAN COLLECTORS

Librairie Renouard, 1875. This is not quite such
an interesting work as one might expect from
the title. The illustrations are rather small,
but there is much information as to the natural
history of the materials mentioned.

Uzanne, Octave : " The Fan." Illustrated by
Paul Avril. 8vo. London, Nimmo and Bain,
1884. An English translation of the amusing
work originally written in French. It is full
of anecdotes, poetry, and literary references, but
of little practical value to a collector. The illus-
trations are entirely fanciful, and do not reproduce
a single actual specimen.

Walker's Collection : " The Catalogues of the
Cabinet of Old Fans, the Property of Mr. Robert
Walker, of Umngton, Berkshire, etc., which will
be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson
and Hodge on Thursday, the 8th of June, 1882,
and two following days/* This has numerous
autotype plates, which are excellent renderings
of some very fine photographs.

" Fans and Fan Leaves," English : Collected
and Described by Lady Charlotte Schreiber.
With 161 illustrations. London, John Murray,
Albemarle Street, 1888.

" Fans and Fan leaves," Foreign : Collected
and Described by Lady Charlotte Schreiber.
With 153 illustrations. London, John Murray,
Albemarle Street, 1840.

These two magnificent volumes contain litho-
graphic reproductions (full size) of the cream of

BOOKS FOR FAN COLLECTORS 293

the collection of fans presented to the British
Museum by the late Lady Charlotte Schreiber,
which is to be found in the Department of Prints
and Drawings. The first volume consists mainly
of reproductions of printed leaves, the other
includes some hand-painted examples. These give
a very good idea of the original collection, but
all who are interested in printed fans should see
the fans themselves if possible. Besides the
illustrations, there are a multitude of references
to contemporary books and documents, which
are most useful.

" The Catalogue of the Collection of Fans and
Fan Leaves presented to the Trustees of the British
Museum by the Lady Charlotte Schreiber. Com-
piled by Lionel Cust, M.A., F.S.A."

A complete list of the Collection, with shortened
versions of the notes in " Fans and Fan Leaves/'
and revisions of some of the titles. It includes
two indexes, one of the names of artists and
publishers, and another of the most important
persons, places, and events mentioned in the
volume. A most valuable book of reference,
especially to collectors of printed leaves.

Flory, M. A. : "A Book about Fans." Pub-
lished in America. An interesting book about
old fans, and including a section on the art of
painting fan leaves, of much use to those who
wish to try their hand at this fascinating pursuit.

G. Wooliscroft Rhead : " History of the Fan,"
London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and

294 BOOKS FOR FAN COLLECTORS

Co., Ltd., 1910. A most sumptuous volume,
exquisitely illustrated with numerous plates in
colour and half-tone. It contains chapters o
Fans of the Ancients, Far East, Primitive Peoples
The Flabellum and Early Feather Fan, leading
up to the Painted and Printed Fans of Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Century Europe.

Vecellio : " Habiti Antichi et Moderni," 1590.
Engravings of costumes, many of the figures
holding fans in their hands.

De Bruyn, A. : " Omnium Pene Europae," etc.,
1581. A somewhat similar work, 1581, of value
to those studying the costumes of the sixteenth
century ; , few of these fans have survived.

" Coryat's Crudities " : Contains an account of
Italian printed fans in the sixteenth century
(which is quoted in its entirety, p. 106).

Quilliet : " Dictionnaire des Peintres Espagnols."

Salway, Mrs. : " Fans of Japan."

Redgrave, S. : Catalogue of Fan Exhibition,
1870.

Marcel, M. Gabriel : " Un Eventail Historique
du dix-huitieme Siecle," Paris, 1901.

The bound volumes of the Gonnoisseur should
also be consulted on account of the numerous
illustrations of exquisite examples of specimens
in private collections not usually accessible to
the public. For the tendency in fan decoration
during the last twenty years the Studio magazine
may be referred to, particularly the special number
entitled " Modern Jewellery and Fans."

THE FAN

IN LITERATURE

AND HISTORY

CHAPTER IX

THE FAN IN LITERATURE AND
HISTORY

REFERENCES to the fan are innumerable, both
in fiction and in those biographies, diaries, and
documents which are the groundwork on which
history is built. From the point of view of this
volume we may omit those which deal with it
as the fan of the winnower who separates the
chaff from the grain, as the instrument for dis-
persing flies — those children of Beelzebub — and
as the insignia of rank. But even omitting these,
there is still left a wealth of material on which
to draw.

For in the eighteenth century it was universally
in use. The pretty woman used it, knowing she
added to her charms ; the clumsy woman used
it in order to occupy her hands ; the ugly woman
used it, as thereby she might at least obtain
credit for elegance.

Among these last Queen Charlotte, the wife
of George III, is a well-known example. Not
being dowered by Nature with any beauty of
face, she made up for it by dignity of manner

297

298 THE FAN IN LITERATURE

and the particularly fine contour of her figure,
more especially of her hands and arms. So much
so that Northcote subsequently declared that
Queen Charlotte's plainness " was not a vulgar
but an elegant plainness." This artist saw another
grace in her. As he looked at Reynolds' portrait
of her, fan in hand, Northcote remembering the
sitting, exclaimed : " Lord, how she held that
fan ! "

References to the fan in French literature are
naturally numerous, and often are of the some-
what flowery type which we associate with the
lighter side of eighteenth-century belle lettres.
The fan is alternately a weapon of " the cruel
fair," or a fan used as bellows to blow up the
fires of love.

Two jeux d' esprit in verse, quoted by Octave
Uzanne, are given in the English translation of
" The Fan/'

The young Abb6 Mathieu de Montreuil, whose
robes did not prevent him from carrying a sword,
nor from being well known as a gallant, returned
a fan to the owner, having robbed her of it for
a short time.

Pray be not angry, Ma'am, with me
Because your fan I once withdrew ;
I burn with love, and so you see
I need its cool much more than you.

This improvisation smells somewhat of the midnight
oil, perhaps, but that is a way of these eighteenth-
century impromptus.

AND HISTORY 299

Louis XIV gave the Duchesse de Bourgogne
a Chinese fan, accompanying the gift with the
following lines : —

To chase in summer time the busy flies,

To keep from cold when suns too quickly fade,

China, Princess, here offers you its aid,

In very gallant wise. I fain had offered gifts of other

sort

To chase all flatt'ring dull fools from the Court
Such present had outshined
The rest ; but this the crown
Of gifts most worth renown
It seeks but cannot find.

Madame D'Aublay, in an account of a conversa-
tion with a visitor, gives an account of the uses
of the fan as understood in her day.

He began playing with a fan, which was
lying on a table.

" How thoroughly useless a toy/' he observed,
and she retorted in defence of the inevitable
companion of all women at that time : " No,
On the contrary, taken as an ornament, it
was the most useful of any belonging to full
dress : occupying the hands, giving the eyes
something to look at, and taking away stiffness
and formality from the figure and deportment."

" Men have no fans," cried he, " and how do
they do ? "

" Worse," quoth I plumply.

" But the real use of the fan," cried he, " if
there is any, is it not to hide a particular blush
that ought not to appear ? "

PLATE XXX.
Various Fans. Early nineteenth century.

1. German Fan. Coloured lithograph. " The
Goose with the Golden Egg/'

2. English. , Painted and pierced bone.

3. Dutch. Pierced and painted horn.

4. Spanish Fan. " The Bull-Fight/' Cedar
sticks inlet with steel.

300

PLATE XXX.
301

THE FAN IN LITERATURE 303

" Oh no, it would make it the sooner noticed."

" Not at all ; it may be done under pretence
at absence — rubbing the cheek or nose, putting
it up accidentally to the eye — in a thousand
ways/' and so on.

The Baronne de Chapt, " (Euvre Philosophique,"
vol. i,1 is earnest in her advice to women of the
beau monde to learn how to make the best use
of the fan.

" It is so pretty/' says she, " so convenient,
so suited to give countenance to a young girl,
and to extricate her from embarrassment when
she presents herself in a circle and blushes, that
it cannot be too highly exalted. We see it
straying over cheeks, bosoms, hands, with an
elegance which everywhere produces admirers.
Thus a citizeness sort of person, who is but
so-and-so, according to the slang of the day, in
wit and beauty, becomes supportable if she
knows the different moves of the fan, and can
adapt them to the right occasion. Love uses
the fan as an infant a toy, makes it assume all
sorts of shapes ; breaks it even, and lets it fall
a thousand times to the ground. How many
fans has not love torn ! They are the trophies
of his glory and the images of the caprices of
the fair sex !

"It is not a matter of indifference a fallen fan.
Such a fall is ordinarily the result of reflection,
intended as a test of the ardour and celerity of

1 Uzanne, " The Fan."
16

304 THE FAN IN LITERATURE

aspiring suitors. They run, they prostrate them-
selves, and he who picks up the fan first, and
knows how stealthily to kiss the hand that takes
it, carries off the victory. The lady is obliged
for his promptitude, and it is then that the eyes
in sign of gratitude speak louder even than the
lips."

If it had all the uses with which the witty
Baronne credits it, small wonder that it was
popular ; but it is said that the real reason that
it came into high favour with somewhat of a
bound in the latter half of the seventeenth century
was a rude remark made by that past mistress
of rudeness, Christina of Sweden, about the
year 1656.

D'Alembert, in his " Reflections and Anecdotes
of the Queen of Sweden," relates that some
ladies of the Court inquired her opinion as to
whether fans might be carried in winter as well
as in summer. They probably expected to pro-
pitiate her by deferring to her opinion, but as
she was most contemptuous of anything in the
way of feminine airs and graces, she replied with
an insulting remark, which (to retain the play
on the words eventail — eventees) may be trans-
lated " Fans ! What do you want with fans ?
you're fantastic enough already ! " To avenge
themselves for this brusque reply to their polite-
ness, they all furnished themselves with fans,
using them on every occasion, and from their
example the fashion spread over Europe. They

AND HISTORY 305

must have been unfortunate in hitting on what
was evidently one of Christina's pet aversions,
because on another occasion Michel Dahl, a Swedish
painter, proposed to paint her fan in hand. On
hearing the suggestion, Christina angrily cried :
" What's that ? A f an ? Never ! Give me a
lion ; it is the sole attribute which suits a queen
like me."

It is hard in some of the anecdotes given about
fans to judge between romance and history,
Often an inquiry into facts shows that the dates
of the alleged occurrences make it impossible
for them really to have happened under the
circumstances.

Take, for instance, the well-known and often-
quoted passage from " Le Cousin Pons," by
Balzac, in which is recounted the presentation
by Pons to his cousin of " a gem of a fan enclosed
in a little box of West India wood, signed by
Watteau, and formerly the property of Madame
de Pompadour." The old musician bends before
his cousin and offers her the fan of the historic
favourite, with these words of royal gallantry : —

"It is time for that which has served Vice to
be in the hands of Virtue. A hundred years
must wane e'er that miracle can be worked.
You may be very sure that no princess possesses
anything to compare with this exquisite master-
piece, for it is unhappily human nature to do
more for a Pompadour than for a virtuous
Queen."

306

THE FAN IN LITERATURE

Here the inference clearly is that Watteau
had put his best work on a fan especially painted
for La Pompadour, for if not, the whole reason
of the flowery compliment falls to the ground.
This, however, was impossible, unless Watteau
painted prophetically, as he died the very year
in which she was born.

The fans of "La Belle Marquise " have inspired
not a few poets and romancers (among whom
may be included the compilers of catalogues !),
and they love to " put a name " to the painters
of those thus immortalized.

Hear Mr. Austin Dobson on the subject. " On
a Fan that belonged to the Marquise de Pompa-
dour " :—

Chicken skin delicate, white,

Painted by Carl Vanloo,
Loves in a riot of light,

Roses and vapours blue.

Hark to the dainty frou frou,

Picture above, if you can,
Eyes that could melt as the dew —

This was the Pompadour's Fan !

During the reign of the fan in England con-
temporary writers never wearied of using it as
a text for essays, satires and poems. Steel, in
the Taller, No. 52, August 4, 1709, has an
amusing letter on the subject (too long here to
quote in its entirety). Delamira, most lovely
of maidens, is represented as being on the eve
of her marriage consulted by the fair Virgetta,

AND HISTORY 307

who, though charming in every way, has never
received a proposal. From her happy friend she
therefore begs " the excellences which now she
must leave of!," including " that inexpressible
beauty in your manner of playing your fan."
It appeared that in this " inestimable rarity,"
left to her by her mother, lay the secret of her
success and of all her " Conquests and
Triumphs." Moreover, she also gave instructions
as to its use.

' You see, Madam, Cupid is the principal
figure painted on it ; and the skill in playing
this Fan is in your several Motions of it to let
him appear as little as possible ; for honourable
Lovers fly all endeavours to ensnare them ; and
your Cupid must hide his Bow and Arrow, or he
will never be sure of his Game. You may observe
in all publick Assemblies the sexes seem to
separate themselves and to attack each other
with Eye-shot ; that is the time when the Fan,
which is the Armour of Woman, is of most use
in her Defence ; for our minds are constructed
by the waving of that little instrument, and our
thoughts appear in Composure or Agitation accord-
ing to the Motion of it.

" You may observe when Will Peregrin comes
into the side box, Miss Gatty flutters her Fan as a
Fly does its wings round a candle ; while her elder
sister, who is as much in love with him as she
is, is as grave as a Vestal at his entrance, and
the consequence is accordingly. He watches half

308 THE FAN IN LITERATURE

the play for a glance from her sister, while Gatty
is overlooked and neglected. I wish you heartily
as much success in the management of it as I
have had. . . . Take it, Good Girl, and use it
without Mercy and without Remorse, for the
Reign of Beauty never lasted above Three Years,
but it ended in Marriage or Condemnation to
Virginity/'

Addison in the Spectator, too, gives instruction
in the use of this weapon, for " Women are armed
with Fans as Men are with swords."

" There is an infinite variety of motion to be
made use of in the flutter of a Fan.

" There is the angry Flutter, the modest Flutter,
the timorous Flutter, the confused Flutter, the
merry Flutter, the amorous Flutter. Not to be
tedious, there is scarce any emotion of the Mind
which does not produce a similar agitation of the
Fan ; inasmuch if I only see the Fan of a disci-
plined Lady I know very well if she laughs,
frowns, or blushes. I have seen a fan so very
angry that it would have been dangerous for
the absent lover who provoked it to come within
the wind of it. And at other times so very lan-
guishing that I have been glad for the Lady's
sake the lover was at a sufficient distance from
it. I need not add that the Fan is either a Prude
or a Coquette according to the nature of the
person who bears it ! "

So here is no question of magic in the Fan
itself, as with the all- conquering weapon oi

AND HISTORY 309

Steele's Delamira, but only the " discipline " of
hand that wielded it.

And it was for this discipline that Addison
proposed to set up his Fan Academy, where
ladies who aspired to carry their fans according
to the latest fashion could learn all the newest
modes. And not ladies alone. " I teach young
gentlemen the whole art of gallanting a Fan.
N.B. I have reserved little plain fans made for
this use, to avoid expense " (Spectator, No. 102).

It was necessary for ladies, as a matter of fact,
to study the way to use their fans, as this matter
marked the difference between the gentlewoman
and — the others.

Pray ladies, copy Abington ;
Observe the breeding in her air,
There's nothing of the actress there !
Assume her fashion — if you can —
And catch the graces of her fan.

The origin of the fan, too, was a subject on
which writers, French and English, were never
weary of dilating. That it came from the East
there is no manner of doubt, and various legends
are recounted of its first invention. One version
of the origin of the folding fan makes it the inven-
tion of a Japanese goddess, and if not credible,
it is at least pretty.

An Emperor far back in the ages had a faithful
minister, who was not only a loyal servant, but
a beloved friend ; he was the sharer of all his

310 THE FAN IN LITERATURE

most intimate secrets, and the custodian of the
most precious of his worldly goods. By the
machinations of a jealous relative the once trusted
follower was to all appearances proved guilty of
a breach of faith. It was in vain that he applied
for permission to explain matters ; his Imperial
master considered the proof beyond all doubt,
and said : " Behold this fan (which was a screen
fan). You and I were one, even as the handle
is a support to the leaf. I crush the stick to
splinters beneath my heel, and crush the leaf
in my hands, and so do I tear you from my heart
and discard you utterly. Never shall I have
faith in you again, for trust once lost can no more
be restored than this fan can be made whole and
fair once more/'

The kneeling suitor humbly picked up the
fragments and left the Imperial presence.

Nothing was left to him but to perform the
sacrifice of Hari Kari, the only honourable course
for one in his position.

Before he died he prayed at the shrine of the
goddess, but all his prayer was not for himself,
but for his master, that he might be faithfully
served by those who had succeeded him in h;s
office. The heart of the goddess was touched
by his unselfishness, and the oracle spoke.

" Pick up the bundle of pieces of the broken
fan and return to thy master's presence, and
there spread them at his feet."

Hardly knowing which to fear most — the

AND HISTORY 311

consequences of obedience in the wroth of the
Emperor if he again ventured into his presence,
or that of the goddess if he failed to carry out
her commands, on the morrow he again sought
his master.

The goddess had, however, prepared his way
by a dream, and he was received graciously.
Again he knelt and recounted the oracle's words ;
as he did so he opened out the fragments, and
to his amazement there was a perfect folding
fan. The splinters of bamboo from the handle
were the sticks, and the crumpled paper fell into
place as the folds of the fan.

The Emperor recognized the miracle.

" Dear hast thou been to me before, ever at
my side, as my fan which hung at my girdle.
Now thou wilt have thy place in my heart, as my
fan which I carry in the folds of my robe over
my breast."

So, confounding the ill will of his enemies, the
faithful minister lived, ever growing dearer to
his master, until both died on the same day, and
were conducted by the goddess to the Abode of
the Blessed.

The " origin of the fan/' as related on a fan
leaf etched and coloured by hand in the manner
so usual in the eighteenth century, printed in
France for the Spanish market, is given as being
a wing torn from Zephyr by Cupid.

The etching shows Psyche asleep, while Cupid
stands by with the wing in his hands, which he

312 LITERATURE AND HISTORY

had retained as a result of intervening to protect
her from the approach of Zephyr. Psyche after-
wards waved it to and fro, and finding it cooled
the air, ever afterwards used it as a fan.

GLOSSARY

INCLUDING NOTES ON METHODS AND MATE-
RIALS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
FANS, AND A FEW HINTS AS TO THEIR
PRESERVATION AND REPAIR

GLOSSARY

Battoir. — A curious type of fan, the sticks being
broadened out in a way which, in the most
typical examples, resembles a racket.

Brin. — The French term for the inner sticks of
a fan.

Brise. — A fan without a leaf, consisting of sticks
of some stiff material joined by means of
a ribbon. (See Chapter IV.)

Cabriolet. — A fan with two (sometimes three)
narrow leaves in place of the ordinary broad
ones. Most fans of this kind are decorated
with representations of the vehicle of the
same name, but it is used for two-leaved
fans, however decorated.

Camaieu. — A painting in different shades of one
colour, most generally rose or blue. This
kind of ornament was extremely popular in
the mid-eighteenth century, china, engravings
and printed cottons all being decorated thus.

Care of Fans, The. — Delicate and costly posses-
sions such as fine fans deserve the utmost
care in storage, and as a rule they are not
subjected to rough treatment. It is, how-
ever, quite possible to do them a great deal

315

316 GLOSSARY

of harm without knowing it. Just as the

well-known precept as to gruel rules that

it should be " thin, but not too thin/' so

fans should be kept " dry, but not too dry/'

A very warm situation may perish the ivory

and skin, cause the paint to flake off, and

destroy the glue. Damp is even worse :

it deadens the gilding, unfastens the glue,

and may even cause mildew spots to appear.

If a fan is in use, do not allow it to be brought

near the fire, or to be laid on a table where

moisture may be spilt. Fans should not be

stored open : it spoils the folds, and makes

the skin liable to crack. There are cases

in which fans can be displayed framed almost

like pictures, but it always appears to me

that shown in this way they lose half their

charm. And although, of course, a properly

glazed airtight case does away with the

danger of dust and atmospheric moisture, it

is not good for the leaf to be kept extended.

One of the best ways of preserving them
is to keep them in a cabinet (or cabinets,
according to the size of the collection) with
shallow drawers, each in a numbered case or
compartment corresponding with a catalogue
in which particulars of the history of the
fan, as far as it can be ascertained, should
be noted, together with a brief description.

Each fan should, unless the cabinet is
absolutely dust-proof, have some sort of

GLOSSARY 317

case or cover. The original case, if it is
available, is, of course, the most interesting ;
if not, a slip of silk or brocade. It is a pretty
idea to have the slips of old silk of a date
corresponding to the fan, or at least of appro-
priate design. Old fine chintz, or " printed
callicoe," as it was called in the eighteenth
century, is appropriate for the earlier paper
fans with etched leaves. These slips help
to lessen changes of temperature, besides
keeping away dust and moisture.

Broken fans can always be repaired, and
missing sticks and portions of the leaves
replaced if such accidents have unfortunately
occurred ; but it is best to have these repairs
done by experts, as even a slight overplus
of glue may lead to considerable damage
when a fan is put away. Ordinary glue and
cement is too stiff and hard, and causes the
skin or paper to crack. A special elastic glue
is best used, which never becomes absolutely
hard, but retains its elasticity.

Ivory, if soiled, may be cleaned with a
suspicion of lemon juice on a soft cloth ;
water should never be used.

In the case of some of the less important
fans it is quite possible to execute trifling
repairs if due care is taken. The following
precautions must be observed: Dust. is very
apt to collect in the interstices of pierced
ivory, bone, and horn fans, and moisture

318 GLOSSARY

should never be used to remove it under any
circumstances. In any case it only drives
it firmly into the crevices, and in the case
of horn the damp is absorbed by the edges
of the piercing, rendering them rough and
uneven. A piece of chamois leather or
Selvyt cloth, used dry, with a slight amount
of pressure, will generally prove sufficient.

Grease spots on paper may be removed
by petrol or benzine, used out of doors, or,
at all events, at a safe distance from a flame.
It is not advisable to use these liquids on
skin.

Rusted steel spangles or cut-steel guards
are very difficult to treat. They may be
reburnished, but fans on which they are
found are only rarely of sufficient importance
to justify the expense. In the case of a
few rusted spangles or plaques it is best to
have them replaced by fresh ones, as the
rust has generally perished the stitches, and
their disappearance is only a question of
time.

Ordinary silver and gold spangles must
not be replaced by the spangles purchased
at fancy-work shops, which are made of
celluloid, and do not give the same effect.

Gilding must always be done by an expert ;
it is almost an impossibility for an amateur,
and the little paper binding at the top of
a fan is always a very difficult thing to

GLOSSARY 319

replace, and as, if badly done, it is almost
impossible to put right, it is better to have
it done properly, or leave it alone.

Chicken Skin. — The greater number of the
finest fans of the eighteenth century are
painted on a kind of vellum known as chicken
skin. It is not made from the skin of chickens,
or indeed of any bird (though it has been
said to have been made from turkey skin !),
but is prepared from very young animals.
The finest, it is said, was obtained by killing
the mother before the birth of her offspring.
It is extremely thin, and very delicate and
supple. It shows no grain looked at in the
ordinary way, but if held up to the light
it has a slightly mottled appearance, which
shows at once what it is, and distinguishes
it from paper, which was sometimes treated
with a surface preparation so as to resemble
it. Paper always shows parallel lines.
Chicken skin fans require especial care, as
they are easily affected by both heat and
damp. If kept in too hot a place the skin
may become hard, and ultimately perish,
and damp produces mildew and stiffness
when the skin is re-dried. An even medium
temperature is the safest, and they should
be opened and shut as seldom as possible.

Colour Prints. — The distinction must be care-
fully observed between " Colour Prints/'
" Coloured Prints,'' and " Printed in Colour."

820 GLOSSARY

The first term is used to imply those prints
in which several different colours are used
on one impression so as to obtain an effect
not unlike water-colour painting. Very rich
and very delicate effects can be obtained.
It is an artistic process, and good examples
are highly esteemed.

" Coloured Prints " are those in which
the outline and certain details are indicated
by an impression from an etched or engraved
block, the colouring being added by hand.
There seems no reason why these should
have been so roughly carried out as they
usually were. With more careful handling
good results would have been attained.

" Prints in Colour/' " Printed in Colour."
These terms are generally used for impres-
sions from engraved blocks printed in one
colour only, such as red, blue, or green.

All these varieties are to be found on fan
leaves. Also prints in black or sepia on
vivid grounds, such as royal blue, jade,
orange, or rose; in some cases the black is
used as the background, relieving figures in
silhouette of colour after the fashion of a
Greek vase.

Cockade Fans. — Those which open out to a
circular form, and shut up against a fairly
long handle.

Etching. — Most of the older printed fan leaves
are decorated with etchings, which were

GLOSSARY 321

coloured by hand ; they must not be con-
founded with pen-and-ink drawings, sometimes
erroneously called etchings. These leaves
were printed from copper plates. The method
employed was first of all to coat the copper
with a suitable varnish, to this the design
was transferred, and then scratched with
a needle so as to expose the copper. The
plate was then placed in a bath of acid,
which eat into the copper wherever the var-
nish had been removed. The superfluous
varnish having been cleaned off, printer's ink
was rubbed into the sunk lines ; paper was
laid over the plate, and by means of a press
the design was transferred to the paper.
It will be noticed that, contrary to printing
from ordinary blocks, in which the picture
is raised, the design is sunk into the plates.
Few etched fans are of any importance
from an artistic point of view ; they are
probably the work of ordinary employees of
the publishing firms, who had no pretensions
to be anything more than skilled workmen.
Feathers. — Both peacocks' and ostrich feathers
have been used for decorating fans. Princi-
pally they were grouped in an ornamental
handle so as to form a screen-shape fan.
For folding fans they were sometimes used
as an edging. Folding fans made altogether
of feathers seem to be a nineteenth-century
invention.

PLATE XXXI.

i and 2. Etched and hand-coloured fans. " In
the Chinese taste." These fans were very popular
in the first half of the eighteenth century.

3-22

GLOSSARY 325

Goldfish. — A very richly coloured mother-o'-
pearl, principally used for inlay.

Gorge. — The part of the stick between the
shoulder and the head.

Gouache. — Painting in body colour. The medium
used was elastic, and will stand a wonderful
amount of usage without cracking. It is
quite different to ordinary modern water
colour, such as Chinese white, which should
on no account be used for any attempted
restoration.

Grisaille. — A painting in tones of grey, shading
from black to white, no colour being intro-
duced.

Guards. — The outer sticks, which are always
much stronger and broader than the inner
sticks.

Head. — The portion of the stick through which
the pin passes.

Leaf. — The broad band of skin, paper, silk, or
other textile fabric which unites the upper
part of the sticks of a folding fan.

Lithography. — This is a process which was in-
vented at the end of the eighteenth century
and applied to the printing of caricatures
and fans, especially in the early and middle
parts of the nineteenth century. Later on
it was to a considerable extent superseded
by other methods.

The design is drawn with a greasy pencil
or pen and oily ink on a stone, which has

826 GLOSSARY

the two properties of taking a very fine
surface polish and the absorption of water.
When the drawing is complete the stone is
fastened in a press and damped ; the
undrawn on stone absorbs the water, while
the greasy design is free from moisture. An
ink roller is then applied, when the result is
reversed, the ink is attracted to the greasy
design, and the background is left clean.
Printing then takes place in the usual way.
Lithography can be used for single coloured
(generally black) outlines and shading, or
it can be used for printing in various colours.
As a rule, for fans that are over eighty years
old, the outline only is printed, the colour
being applied by hand.

Lithographed fans are seldom of any

interest to the collector, but it is very neces-

, sary for the inexperienced buyer to beware

of " Restoration Fans," which in very many

cases have a lithographed base.

These fans are the result of a craze for
fans in the old style, which took the fashion-
able world of Paris by storm. As sufficient
genuine old specimens could not be dis-
covered, the clever purveyors of trinketry
supplied the demand with new fans, which
bear considerable resemblance to their proto-
types. In order to economize time the outlines
were painted by lithography, and the painting
done by hand, disguising as far as possible

GLOSSARY 327

the mechanical base. The lithographic line
is very like a pencil line, and either innocently
or not they are palmed off on unwitting buyers
as " Louis XV antiques." Of course, to a
collector who has intelligently studied a
single real fan, the idea of any one falling
into an error regarding these fans seems
preposterous and ridiculous. I know, how-
ever, personally of two cases where quite
good prices have been given for them. The
sticks often are elaborately carved and
handsomely gilt, though the workmanship is
coarse ; still, the effect is brilliant and rich
to an inexperienced eye.

There were also simple fans of about the
same period with lithographed and painted
figure groups in pseudo-Watteau style. The
drawing of these figures has a curiously
" old-fashioned " flavour, quite different to
the style of the originals. It is rather puzzling
why the designers at this date, instead of
copying the originals, preferred to evolve
something of the same sort " out of their

inner consciousness."

Fans there are of Spanish origin for which
their owners proudly claim antiquity. These
are almost always adorned with lithographs
of bull-fights and scenes in and near the
bull-ring. These fans are seldom earlier
than 1855 or 1850, and are of little interest.
The colours are generally in the earlier ones

328 GLOSSARY

applied by hand, later they are printed in
chromo-lithography. The sticks are often of
sandalwood, inlet with plaques of burnished
steel. Many of these appear to have been
printed as souvenirs, attractive to the tourist
rather than for native use, though paper
fans were carried in the streets. There are
many bright-coloured fans of this calibre,
which are not unattractive as decorative
objects, but they are too numerous and coarsely
executed to have any special value to the
collector. I have seen these fans offered for
sale as " Antique Spanish Fans/' having had
their sticks gilded and burnished, which
made them very effective for use ; but I
imagine that disappointment and disillu-
sionment must have ensued when the unwary
purchaser showed the " treasure " to any
one who knew about fans.

Mosaique. — The term used by French workmen
of the time of Louis XVI to describe the
style of ornament used in the sticks of that
period. It consisted of a finely perforated
ground and solid reserves carved in bas
relief. (See p. 224.)

Panaches. — The French term for the outer sticks
of a fan.

Paper. — Almost all printed fan leaves and many
painted ones are executed on a paper ground.
The material used is, of course, " hand made,"
as machine-made paper is quite a modern

GLOSSARY 329

invention, only dating from the nineteenth
century.

The method of manufacture is a simple
one, though it involves a considerable amount
of technical skill and knowledge. As is
well known, paper is produced from rags
reduced to pulp by boiling and grinding.
A small quantity of the liquid pulp is taken
up in a mould, which consists of a frame
covered with fine wire cloth, and having a
movable edge known as the " dekkle." The
workman spreads the pulp on the wire by
giving it a shake, and the dekkle being re-
moved, the soft sheet is laid on a piece of
felt to dry, another piece of felt is laid on
top of it, and on this the next sheet is placed ;
the process being continued until a large
enough pile is produced to take to the press,
where the superfluous water is removed.
This way of making paper leaves a clear
impress of the wires in the paper in the shape
of fine lines, crossed at intervals by rather
heavier lines. The watermarks which are
found in some sheets are formed by wires bent
to the required shape, which form part of
the mould, and appear in the finished sheet
when held up to the light as a transparent
outline, owing to the paper being thinner
where they occur.

Italy, France, and Holland were noted
for their manufacture of paper, but until

330 GLOSSARY

1685 the finer kinds do not appear to have
been made in England, and for a considerable
time after that date a large amount was
imported from the Continent, so that a foreign
watermark does not necessarily imply that
a fan is of foreign provenance.

The paper used for the etched and hand-
coloured fans which had such an immense
vogue in the eighteenth century is thin,
tough, and of fairly smooth surface. It has
generally attained a very creamy tint with
age, and, indeed, was probably not very white
to begin with, as the present day methods of
bleaching not being known, the makers had
to rely on the purity of colour of the material
from which the paper was made. What it
lost in whiteness it gained in durability, and
the fans of that day, save for actual wear
and tear, are still as good as when they were
made, while much modern paper discolours
and loses its flexibility in a very short time.

Evelyn gives an account of paper making
which is interesting, because it describes
the process followed at the date of the
introduction of white paper of English
manufacture : —

During August 24, 1678.

" I went to see my Lord of St. Alban's
house at Byflete, an old large building.
Thence to the paper mills, where I found
them making a coarse white paper. They

GLOSSARY 331

cull the rags which are linnen for white paper,
woollen for brown ; then they stamp them
in troughs to a papp with pestles or hammers
like ye powder mills, then put it into a vessell
of water, in which they dip a frame closely
wyred with wyre as small as a haire and as
close as a weaver's reede ; on this they take
up the papp, the superfluous water draining
through the wyre ; this they dexterously
turning, shake out like a pancake, on a
smooth board between two pieces of flannell,
then presse it between a greate presse, the
flannell sucking out ye moisture ; then
taking it out they ply and hang it on strings,
as they dry linnen in the laundry ; then
dip it in alum- water lastly polish, and make
it up into quires. They put some gum in
the water in which they macerate the raggs.
The mark we find on the sheets is formed
in the wyre."

It will be seen that the method is prac-
tically the same as that in use in the eighteenth
century, and, as a matter of fact, differs very
little from that in use at the present day
for manufacturing hand-made paper.
Paste. — Imitation stones are often set in the
head of the pins, and sometimes in the guards.
As a rule these are white, but red " rubies,"
green " emeralds," and blue " sapphires "
are also found. Tiny pastes are also inset
in the guards of some horn " Empire " fans.

332 GLOSSARY

These have no metal setting, but fit into
small circular depressions set in the horn.
They have a somewhat meretricious effect,
but suited the theatrical taste of the day.

Pen-and-ink Drawings. — Many eighteenth-
century fans are decorated with delicately
executed drawings of this kind. Sometimes
these are mistakenly called etchings. A true
etching is printed from a copper plate by a
mechanical process (see under Etching).
Often the pen-and-ink work is heightened
by washes, sometimes of sepia or Indian
ink, sometimes of colour, which give a very
different effect to the pure pen and ink.
These fans appear to have been often intended
for use as mourning fans, but this is by no
means always the case.

Pin. — Another term for Rivet, which see.

Piqu£. — Decorated by small gold or silver points
or pins.

Ribbon. — Brise fans are always held together
by a ribbon. At first sight it appears as
if a continuous length passed through the
whole fan. Closer inspection, however, reveals
that the ribbon consists of as many short
pieces as there are brins, so that the ribbon
may be attached to the sticks, and not merely
pass through them.

The ribbon used was a fine close silk weave,
very like what is known as " China " ribbon,
but hardly so thick. It should just fill the

GLOSSARY 333

width of the slits, as if it is too narrow it
looks poor, while if even slightly too wide it
interferes with the set of the fan when folded.

In Vernis Martin fans the ribbon is fixed
at the very top of the fan, and is painted, to
be in keeping with the rest of the decoration.

Many fans have had the ribbon replaced
— probably more than once — but in a great
many cases the purity of the old silk has
carried the original on to our day.

If the ribbon requires replacing, it is a
question whether the original tint should
be used, or one as near as possible to that
to which the old one had faded. In deciding
this, it is as well to consider the preservation
of the rest of the decoration. If it is fresh
— and many fans, such as the Dutch painted
horn minuet fans, are as bright as when
they were made — certainly a bright, though
soft, tint should be selected. If, on the
other hand, the decoration is old and faded,
or if the ivory of a pierced fan has yellowed
with age, then a duller brownish shade will
harmonize best, though even then a little more
colour than remains in the original may be an
advantage if it is very perished and brown.
The Rivet is the pin which passes through the
hole in the head of the fan stick and acts
as a pivot on which the sticks turn as they
are furled and unfurled.

In early times it appears to have been

334

GLOSSARY

as a rule actually riveted. To this end a
small portion of the metal, of which it was
composed, was left protruding beyond the
washer and spread out by blows from a
hammer, so that it could not be again with-
drawn. The washer or button was generally
of ivory or mother-o'-pearl. This made a
neat and secure fastening, but it had a dis-
advantage that if the fan required repair
it was a little troublesome to unfasten it.
However, that was not a serious matter, and
this method of securing the pin has endured
to the present day, especially for the less
elaborate fans. Where, however, the head
of the pin is of an ornamental kind, and has
a paste or precious stone set in it, riveting
as a means of securing it is obviously impossi-
ble. The alternate method is to make the
rivet in two parts, one hollow with a screw
turned on the inside, into which the other
half screws. Such pins can be easily removed
and replaced, which is often a convenience,
and they have often taken the place of the
older plain ivory or pearl buttons.

The setting of the stones, whether paste
or real, should be examined to see whether
the pin is an old one ; the majority of modern
settings are " gallery " or " built up " settings,
while the old ones are cut down. In the
former the claws that hold the stone consist
of fine wires or stamped-out metal, while

GLOSSARY 335

in the latter case the stone is set in a compara-
tively stout metal, the sides being cut away
by means of a sharp chisel, leaving the claws
standing out in ridges, having a very bright
gleaming effect, though this is often dimmed
by tarnish.

Some fans have a metal loop intended for
the attachment of a ribbon fastened on by
means of the pin. These were not originally put
on to fans until the early nineteenth century,
but they have, of course, been added to some
fans of earlier date, in which case the original
pin has, as a rule, been replaced by a longer
one to allow for the additional thickness of
the loop.

Rococo (Rocaille). — A somewhat extravagant
style of decoration in vogue in the days of
Louis XV. It generally included numerous
ornamental features, such as rockwork,
stalactites, Chinamen, birds, foliage, flowers,
scrolls, wreaths, figures, trellis-work — in fact,
almost everything was pressed into the
service, provided it gave the desired effect.
Everything was one-sided, panels were never
rectangular, but of irregular outline, bounded
by curves ; frequently they were higher at
one side than the other. In the hands of
a master of design the effect is sometimes
excellent when all the surroundings are in
keeping, but otherwise it easily degenerates
into the absurd.

336

GLOSSARY

Shoulder. — The point of the stick immediately
below the leaf. In early fans it sets off almost
at right angles, the line generally following
the lower line of the leaf. At the end of
the eighteenth century the top of the shoulder
was rounded. Brise" fans, as a rule, have no
shoulder, except a slight indication on the
guards.

Spangles were, during the last half of the
eighteenth century, applied to almost every
article of women's attire, and, of course,
were much used on fans. They were applied
to the typical Louis XVI fan as a frame
for the frequent three medallions, and were
also introduced into other parts of the design.
Later on whole designs were worked out in
them, and on many " Empire " fans they
are the sole decoration. Spangles are of
two kinds, hammered and stamped ; the
older variety is round, with a small hole
in the middle. It is sometimes thought that
these consist of small plates of metal with a
hole pierced in them, but this is not the case ;
they are made out of tiny rings of wire
subjected to severe pressure, which spreads
the metal inwards and outwards until the
opening in the centre is only large enough
to admit the passage of a needle. On close
examination a fine line may be traced where
the two ends of the metal ring meet. Some-
times these spangles are not spread quite

GLOSSARY 837

so much, and these take the form of a
broad ring.

The other kind which were used later are
variously shaped as small stars, ovals, flower
shapes, and so on. They are not flat, being
somewhat raised in the centre, and were
punched or stamped out of extremely thin
sheets of metal. Complete designs of a
floral character are sometimes worked out
in such spangles, either alone or in conjunc-
tion with frosted gilt metal stamped in
openwork patterns.

Steel spangles were also very fashionable
at the end of the eighteenth century and
the beginning of the nineteenth. These also
were made in a variety of forms by the firm
of Boulton and Watt, Birmingham, the metal
used being burnished to an extraordinary
degree of brilliancy. Used in conjunction
with matt gilt metal, glittering and showy
effects were easily obtained. Small stamped
ornaments similar in appearance to spangles,
but without the central hole, are often inlaid
into ivory and bone sticks of late eighteenth
and early nineteenth century date ; some of
these have a small pin at the back which
fits into a perforation in the ivory, making
for greater security than when simply glued
into a circular depression.

Stick. — The skeleton or framework of a folding
fan, consisting of the outer or guard sticks
18

838

GLOSSARY

(French panaches) and the inner sticks
(French brins).

Water Colour. — When this term is used it
generally means that the painting is done
in transparent colour, without body-colour
of any kind.

Whalebone. — This material is not used for fans,
but horn fans are often erroneously so called.

Woods. — The chief kinds used for fans are sandal-
wood, which was much appreciated on account
of its pleasant odour ; holly, which was
almost white in colour, but rather brittle ;
laburnum, a yellowish tough wood with a
close grain, which was suitable for fine
pierced work. The slips which extend the
sticks under the leaf beyond the shoulder are
generally of wood, even when the visible
part is ivory, pearl, or tortoiseshell.

INDEX

[For proper names consult also Chapter VII, which contains a
list of Fan Painters, Publishers and Designers.]

Adams, William, 259
Addison, quoted, 309
D'Alembert, quoted, 304
Arevalo, Cano de, 77
Argus Pheasant Fan, 205
Arms of Fanmakers' Com-
pany, 223
Ashton, Sarah, 259
Aurora of Guido, 70

Babst, M. Germain, quoted, 188
Balloon Fans, 57, 113
Balzac, quoted, 23, 305
Bartolozzi, 96
Battoir Fans, 86, 315
Beggar's Opera, 178
Bella, Stefano della, 108
Blondel, 291
Botanical Fans, 137
Bouchot, Henri, quoted, 119
Boulton and Watt, 337
Brin, 315

Bris6 Fans, 147, 315
Broome, James, 260
Burney, Miss Frances, quoted, 96

Cabriolet Fans, 163, 315
Callot, Jacques, 108
Calpins, 261
Camaieu, 315
Canton, 201
Capaigne, 27

Caracci, Agostino, 109

Care of fans, 315

Catalogue of Fans, Schreiber

Collection, 293
Chapel Fan, 177
Chapt, Baronne de, quoted, 303
Charles II Fans in Walker

Collection, 87

Chassereau, Francis, 245, 259
Chassereau, Francis, sen., 260
Chicken skin, 235, 319
Chinese Fans, 120
Chinese Fans (carved), 207
Chinese trade, 201
Christina of Sweden, 304
Church Fans, 138, 175
Cipriani, 96

Clarke, Robert, 259, 261
Cochin, Nicolas, 108, 109
Cock, Abraham, 260
Cockade Fans, 320
Coe, Thomas, 259
Coe, William, 259
Colour prints, 319
Colour prints on silk, 191
Coronation Fans, 133
Coryat, quoted, 106
Coventry, Lady, 95
Covers for fans, 317
Craftsman, quoted, 119
Craon, Princess, 75
Cut Vellum Fans, 187

341

342

INDEX

Daily Advertiser, quoted, go
Dance Fans, 129
Dieppe ivory workers, 220
Dobson, Austin, quoted, 306
Dutch embroidered fan, 190
Dutch Fans, 205

Embroidered Fans, 190
Empire Fans, 61, 192, 227,

332

English fan sticks, 222
English Painted Fans, 87
English printed fan leaves,

119

de 1'Estoile, Pierre, quoted, 188
Etching, 320
Evelyn, quoted, 202, 330
Expanding Fans, 195

Fan boxes (Chinese), 209
Fan leaves, printed, 105
Fan Makers' Company, 89, 223

254

Fan makers of Paris, 267
Fan making, 237
Feather Fans (Chinese), 205
Feathers, 321
Filigree (Chinese), 205
Flory, M. A., quoted, 188
French Printed Fans, in

Gamble, M., 119, 129, 176, 178,

186

Gauze Fans, 194
Gelatine insertions, 194
Gentleman's Magazine, quoted,

89, i?5
Glue, 233

Goldfish pearl, 325
Gorge, 325
Gouache, 325
Goupy, Jose, 93
Grisaille, 325
Guards, 325
Guercino, in

Hadwin, Abraham, 259

Handles, 212

Harlot's Progress, 137

Head, 325

History of England Fan, 137

Hogarth, 137, 206

H6rman, Christoph Fridn, 109

Horn Fans (pierced), 162

Importation of fans, 261
Importation of sticks, 223
" Industrial Arts of Spain," 85
Italy, painted fan leaves, 65
Ivory Fans (Chinese), 206
Ivory Fans (pierced), 157
Ivory sticks, 217
Ivory to clean, 317

Journal des Hommes Libres,

quoted, 180
Journal du Citoyen, quoted, 221

Kauffmann, Angelica, 96

Lacquer fan boxes, 209
Lacquer Fans, 206
Lacquered stocks, 223
Lady's Magazine, quoted, 176
Leaf, 325
Lithography, 325
Lorgnette Fans, 169
Louis XIV Fan, 28
Louis XIV, marriage of, 28
Louis XV Fans, 41
Louis XV sticks, 215
Louis XVI Fans, 45, 114, 115,

190, 207
Louis XVI fansticks, 224

Maps on printed leaves, 137

"Malbrouk " Fans, 112

" Mandarin " Fans, 203, 205,

208

Marcel, M. Gabriel, 294
Marriage Fans, 134. 182

INDEX

343

Mica insertions, 194
Minuet Fans, 163
Moncornet, Balthazar, 109
Mosaique, 224, 328
Mother-o'-pearl sticks, 217
Motteaux, Peter, 260
Mourning Fans, 179
Mourning Fans, English, 180
Mystery Fans, 168

Napoleonic Fans, 119
Neapolitan Fans, 75
Nelson, subject of fan, 136
Northcote, 298

Opera Fans, 129, 196
Origin of fan, Japanese legend,

3°9
Origin of fan, Spanish version,

3°9
Osborne, Thomas, 120

Painted Fans in France, 27

Panaches, 328

Paper-making, 329

Paste, 331

Pen-and-ink drawings, 332

Piercing saw, 239

Pin, 332

Piqu6, 332

Piqu6 work, 215

Poggi, 96

Polly Peachum, 178

Pompadour, Marquise de, 23,

305

Pompeian Fans, 71
Pope, Alexander, fan in honour,

97
Preparation of materials for

sticks, 239

Printed Fans, French, in
Printed fan leaves, English,

119

Printed Silk Fans, 191
Puzzle Fans, 163

Queen Anne, 91, 255
Queen Charlotte, 297
Quilliet, 294
Quizzing Fans, 169

Rake's Progress, 137
Redgrave, S., 294
Repair of fans, 316
Rhead, G. Wooliscroft, 293
Riafio, Seflor Juan, F. quoted,

Ribbon, 332
Rivet, 333
Rococo, 335
Rococo sticks, 215
Romano, Guilio, in
Rondot, M. Natalis, quoted,

183, 291

Salway, Mrs., 294

Satin applique decoration,

194

Schreiber, Lady Charlotte, 293
Screen Fans, 321
Screen Fans, silk, 190
Shoulder, 336
Silk Fans, 190
Simmonds, Joseph, 259
Simmonds, Richard, 255
Spain, painted fan leaves in,

Spangles, 173

Spangled decoration, 190, 193,

336

Spectator, quoted, 308, 309
Steel, quoted, 306
Stickmaker's skill, 218
Stick, 337
Sticks, 212

Tassels, 208
Tatler, quoted, 306
Theatre Fans, 196
Theatrical Fans, 177
Ticquet, 182

344

INDEX

Topographical ornament, 107
Tortoiseshell sticks, 217
Trade cards, 245

Uzanne, quoted, 174, 221, 292,
298

Vecellio, 294

Vellum Fans, 65

Vernis Martin, 147, 205, 227

Victories, fans in honour of,

135

Views on Fans, 136

Walker Collection, 29
Walker Sale, 87

Walker Sale Catalogue, 292
Walpole, Horace, quoted, 75,

95, 163

Water colour, 338
Wedding Fans, 134. 182
Wedgwood Jasper Ware, 49,

194, 225

West, John, 260
West, Sir Benjamin, 96
Westminster Journal, quoted,

" Whalebone " Fans, 162, 338
Wooden Fans (pierced), 161
Woods, 338

Xavery, Francis, 27

Printed in Great Britain by
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE ORESHAM PRESS, WOKINQ AND LONDON

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

4870

147

Fercival, Maclver
The fan book

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