IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 117600 accession number: M.14-1985 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Wednesday 15 July 2020 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: Folding fan, double paper leaf, painted in polychrome watercolour and body colour. Sticks pierced, carved and painted ivory; guards carved and painted ivory inlaid with tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl (20+2); rivet set with clear pastes. Indistinct inscription in the bottom left corner on the reverse. Front: three theatrical scenes. In the centre, Mars is kneeling with a shield and Venus holding a helmet; on the left; perhaps Venus with a mirror, leaning her arms on a plinth with a sphinx; beside her a tambourine on an open book of music; on the right, two women are sitting and leaning back towards the other on the right who is stepping onto a footstool; in the background, two columns on a podium behind Mars, and a vase on a pedestal. Top left and right borders are of a colourful and striped foliage with grapes, and a small curtain and tassels in the top right half; the top and lower edging are of a gold foile, the right and left edges have a gold line. Back: in the middle, a couple in contemporary dress and a man watching them from behind a tree. A big tree in the background, small trees on the left. Top border of gold striped swags of drapery in puce and blue; bottom left border painted with a gold line. Sticks: in the centre, between wavy lines, animals including two hounds and a deer; buildings right and left. On top, squirrels, birds and putti in scrolling foliage; underneath, pairs of sheep, leaves and blossoms. Parts of the sticks are shaped to produce a pattern when open. The reverse shows the same scene in reversed order with fewer colours used and without carved parts. Guards: both guards are decorated in the same way: shoulder of tortoiseshell inlaid with three diagonal stripes, the top and bottom ones are ivory, the middle one is mother of pear; the right and left border are also mother-of-pearl. Guard proper: Outer border mother-of-pearl, inner border tortoiseshell, inner part of carved and painted ivory; wavy, scrolling ornament with pairs of animals, a house, a bird and a shell on top. object type: Folding fan, double paper leaf, painted in polychrome watercolour and body colour. Sticks pierced, carved and painted ivory; guards carved and painted ivory inlaid with tortoiseshell and mother of pearl (20+2); rivet set with clear pastes. Front: three theatrical scenes. title: folding fan NOTES ----- type: history note value: Colonel Leonard C. Messel (1872-1953); his daughter Anne, Countess of Rosse (1902-1992) LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Applied Arts collection: Messel-Rosse Collection creditline: Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a gift from the Friends of the Fitzwilliam STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/117600 PEOPLE ------------------- Messel, Leonard Countess of Rosse, Anne CATEGORIES ------ category: fans DATING ------ creation date: 1740 - 1740 creation date earliest: 1740 creation date latest: 1740 culture: 18th Century, second quarter# CREATORS -------- maker: Unknown DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Width units: cm value: 45.0