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Folding fan: M.239-1985

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Folding fan, double skin leaf, painted in bodycolour and gilt; sticks of pierced mother-of-pearl, inlaid with silver and gold; guards of pierced mother-of-pearl inlaid with silver and gold, backed with gold (14+2). Rivet set with silver. Front: Three pairs of unusually large figures are set in a very lush landscape with a bank on the left and a forest in the background. In the centre, two women are doing needlework; on the left a woman fanning her and a little figure holding a sunshade, both reminiscent of chinoiseries. On the right, in front of her, a woman is putting one arm around a man playing lute, sitting on a pillow. The scenes are flanked by a broad gold pattern, the top border comprising a war and garden trophy, birds, a vase of flowers, flowers (all painted in gold) and some roses. The top edging is of gold foil. Back: the centre is decorated with a swallow on a pedestal flanked by sprays of roses. Sticks: a man and a woman are making music in a central cartouche. The remaining sticks are decorated symmetrically with flowers and leaves, the first and last three are linked by swags. Guards: both guards are decorated in a similar way: a lozenge with twigs set on the shoulder, a flower, a vase and swags of drapery on the guard proper.

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 Museum

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

18th Century, second half#
Circa 1770 CE - Circa 1780 CE

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Leaf composed of bodycolour skin
Sticks+guards composed of mother-of-pearl gold silver
Rivet composed of silver
Guards Length 27.6 cm

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.239-1985
Primary reference Number: 117824
Old catalogue number: none
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 15 July 2020 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Folding fan" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/117824 Accessed: 2024-11-24 19:56:26

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/117824 |title=Folding fan |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-24 19:56:26|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-117824

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