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The Messel Standing Feather Fan
Maker of leaf:
Unknown
Maker of handle:
Unknown
Woven plant fibre panels mounted on concealed frames, decorated with feathers of the purple-breasted cotinga (cotinga amabilis) and other birds; stick of turned wood. The fan is composed of five separate sections of drawn thread work on concealed frames. The frames are covered with feathers in bands of different colours and there is a border to each section of more feathers. The central scenes of flowers and birds are composed of feathers and stitched into place on applied fabric grounds and are different on each side. The whole is mounted on a turned, wooden handle.
History note: Colonel Leonard Messel (d. 1953); Anne, Countess of Rosse (d. 1992)
Bought with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a gift from the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1985
Height: 34 cm
Width: 23 cm
Method of acquisition: Bought (1985-01-28) by Countess of Rosse, Anne
17th Century, second half
Production date:
circa
AD 1665
: Date uncertain
Fixed fans were used to cool or shield the face or as fly swats.
Place of manufacture and assembly uncertain; the leaf was probably made in South America or Central America whilst the handle is probably European, possibly either English or Dutch.
Previously, the sections of threadwork in concealed frames were thought to have bee made of gut. However, new light imaging (published in 2024) reveals that these are actually twisted and bent plant fibres, doubled up and interwoven into different schemes. See Hanss 2024 in 'documentation'.
The blue and purple feathers match those of the purple-breasted cotinga (cotinga amabilis), found in Brazil, the Guyanas and Surinam. Although not identical, the bird forming part of the decoration on this side of the fan may have been intended to represent that cotinga. The other feathers have yet to be identied, but may come from members of the same species.
Leaf
composed of
fibrous material
( plant fibre, see Hanss 2024)
feathers
Stick
composed of
wood
Case
Height 40 cm
Width 32 cm
Decoration
Handle
Accession number: M.358-1985
Primary reference Number: 117942
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "The Messel Standing Feather Fan" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/117942 Accessed: 2025-03-28 13:05:05
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/117942
|title=The Messel Standing Feather Fan
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-03-28 13:05:05|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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-117942
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/466/19/large_M_358_1985_1_200910_mfj22_mas.jpg"
alt="The Messel Standing Feather Fan"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">The Messel Standing Feather Fan</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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