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Venus and Mars: M.475-2015

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Venus and Mars

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Folding fan. Depicting Mars, resplendent in armour, walking towards a reclining Venus.
Hand painted, on ivory sticks with applied mother of pearl.

Notes

History note: Lennox Boyd Estate. Christie's no. 5036

Legal notes

Accepted by H. M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax from the Lennox Boyd Estate

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Allocated (2015-04-27) by H.M. Government

Dating

17th Century-18th Century#
Production date: circa AD 1700

Note

This fan forms part of the collection of the Hon. Christopher Lennox Boyd, allocated to the Museum by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax in 2015. The collection of over 600 objects ranges in date from the 18th to the 20th centuries and in type from bejewelled and hand-painted court and wedding fans, to printed mass-produced advertising fans, aide-memoire fans, mourning fans and children’s fans.

This is the oldest fan in the Lennox-Boyd collection. It shows Venus, the Roman goddess of love, being approached by her lover, Mars, the Roman god of war. This delicately hand-painted fan was made for a wealthy and discerning patron: its sticks are carved from expensive imported ivory and then embellished with exotic mother-of pearl. The guards may have been added later. Extensive tears have been crudely repaired at some point in its history.

Components of the work

Sticks composed of mother-of-pearl ivory
Leaf

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.475-2015
Primary reference Number: 205054
Sale number: 5036
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Wednesday 5 August 2015 Updated: Wednesday 4 October 2023 Last processed: Wednesday 13 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) "Venus and Mars" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/205054 Accessed: 2024-11-21 23:36:31

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/205054 |title=Venus and Mars |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 23:36:31|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-205054

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