Folding fan: M.15-1985

Maker(s)

Production: Unknown

Entities

• Folding fan

Categories

• Fans

Description

Single skin leaf, painted in bodycolour. Sticks of ivory shaped and pierced. (14+2). Steel rivet with mother-of-pearl washers. Front: a basically rectangular view of the Bay of Naples with an eruption of Vesuvius on the right. Down the left and right sides, and across the top there are borders of fruit and foliage on a cream ground, and areas of blue ground painted with black and reddish-brown stylized foliage. Along the lower edge of the view there is a black border inscribed in yellow 'L o Eruption Vesuvio 1822' possibly over an earlier worn inscription. Gold paper binding on top, bottom and left edges. Back: a blue and pink bird perching on a leafy branch, grass and distant mountains. Sticks and guards: the four central sticks are carved with two figures and vertical lines, the rest have panels of different pierced patterns.

Notes

History note: Colonel Leonard C. Messel (1872-1953); his daughter Anne, Countess of Rosse (1902-1992)

Legal notes

Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a gift from the Friends of the Fitzwilliam

Place(s) associated

• Naples ⪼ Campania ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1985-01-28) by Countess of Rosse, Anne

Dating

19th Century, Early#
Production date: after AD 1822

Note

Many late 18th and 19th century Neapolitan fans made as souvenirs for tourists were decorated with Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in 1766-7, 1770, 1794, and 1822.