Folding fan: M.320-1985

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

• Folding fan

Categories

• Fans

Description

Folding fan, double paper leaf painted in bodycolour and watercolour. Sticks of carved, pierced and painted ivory; guards of pierced, carved and painted ivory (20+2). Rivet of iron and washer of mother-of-pearl. Front: a couple sitting on a rock; back: a ruin with two shadow-like figures.

Folding fan, double paper leaf painted in bodycolour and watercolour. Sticks of carved, pierced and painted ivory; guards of pierced, carved and painted ivory (20+2). Rivet of iron and washer of mother-of-pearl. Front: in the centre, a couple are sitting on a rock in front of trees and bushes; a woman holding a flower is standing next to them on the left, behind her a herm and a building with three high arches. There is another woman sitting on the left on the ground and a hunting scene with a stag followed by two riders in the background on the right. Blue and pink flowers and leaves border the scene. Back: there is a ruin with three arches surrounded by bushes, two shadow-like, very small figures and some bushes and grass in the foreground. top right and left borders are decorated with scrolling pink and blue leaves and flowers. Sticks: there are seven gold bordered medallions, the middle of which has a woman sitting under a roof and a man standing in front of her; it is flanked by two medallions of flowers, the left one with a basket of flowers on top, like the central one. The first three sticks on either side have two medallions one above the other. On the left, there is a hen at the bottom and a rabbit with a long tail on top, and on the right, there is a bird with open wings above the rabbit. Empty spaces are filled with sprays of flowers. The reverse is undecorated. Guards: both guards are decorated in a similar way: a scrolling spray of leaves on the shoulder, scrolls and garlands of flowers on the bottom of the guard proper, a woman sitting under a roof and two little arches on top.

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