Folding fan: M.328-1985

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

• Folding fan

Categories

• Fans

Description

Folding fan, double paper leaf, painted in bodycolour, watercolour and gilt. Sticks and guards of gilded and silvered mother-of-pearl, carved, pierced and the latter backed with mother-of-pearl (12+2) brass rivet and mother-of-pearl washer. Front: Three cartouches with theatrical scenes with a musical theme; back: landscape.

Folding fan, double paper leaf, painted in bodycolour, watercolour and gilt. Sticks and guards of gilded and silvered mother-of-pearl, carved, pierced and the latter backed with mother-of-pearl (12+2) brass rivet and mother-of-pearl washer. Front: Three cartouches with theatrical scenes on a silver background decorated with gold and red sprays of flowers and garlands of flowers. In the central cartouche, which is bordered by two shades of salmon coloured lines, a group of people are making music. A girl is standing in front of a sofa playing the lute, another one sitting, a young gentleman is sitting in front of an open book of music on a desk, a woman behind him, and on the left there is a boy looking at a sheet of paper. The two flanking scenes are bordered in shades of green with a gold ornament, each showing a girl sitting in contemporary dress and a figure in Turkish costume with a curtain drapery in the background. An azure blue line with a golden leaf chain and a gold edging borders the leaf. Back: the whole reverse is painted with a landscape in shades of blue and brown trees and bushes in the foreground, and water, a bridge with three arches, buildings and trees in the background in very pale colours. The leaf has a golden-red leaf and flower border, the top edging is of a paper ribbon. Sticks: the second sticks from either side have been mistakenly interchanged so that they do not show the circular ornament on top together with the first sticks they were supposed to show; the lower parts of the first and second sticks have slightly scrolling ornaments. The third sticks, carved in battoire style, have a woman holding a garland over a circle with a pierced flower. The fourth and fifth sticks form a little oval medallion bordered by a chain from bigger and smaller round-shaped elements; the two central battoire sticks have two dos on the bottom, a gentleman with a hat on the right and a lady with a lute on the right. The reverse is undecorated. Guards: both guards are decorated in a similar way: battoire shaped shoulder with flower and fruit decorations; the guard proper is a flower and a man with a lute standing under a coconut palm tree with a garland.

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