The charming spangled fan in the possession of Mr. Talbot Hughes may also be accepted as of undoubted Spanish workmanship. In this, the leaf is of white silk, painted with a female figure in a garden, arranging flowers from a basket. The head is an applied miniature on ivory, a device much affected by the Chinese; the necklace, seed pearls appliqué; the dress completely of spangles. The leaf is enriched with a border of gold and silver sequins of various forms, some being set with crystals. The stick ivory, coloured, gilt, and decorated à la paillette. The date about 1800.
| Spanish Fan, Bull Fights, c. 1780, silk mount spangled ivory stick carved à jour, gold & silver incrustations. | Lady Northcliffe. |
It has been shown, beyond any possibility of doubt, that during the seventeenth century French exportation of this dainty article to Spain was considerable, French fans enjoying the best reputation in that country, as well as in Italy, and that this pre-eminence was maintained during the succeeding century, the period of the highest development of the fan industry in France; but while it is difficult to associate the native Spanish workmanship with fans of the highest calibre, a preference for the richer French fans having always prevailed, it is certain that the production of the cheaper fans was, and is, considerable, Valencia being the chief centre of the industry. It is equally certain that in no country in Europe is the employment of the fan so general, or the toy so gracefully wielded, as in this land of light, colour, and romance.
Théophile Gautier (Tra los montes) thus refers to the importance of the fan in Spain: ‘The Fan corrects in some measure the pretension of the Spaniards to Parisianism. A woman without a fan is a thing I have never yet seen in that favoured land; I have seen women wearing satin shoes without any stockings, but they had, nevertheless, their fans, which follow them everywhere, even to church, where you meet groups of all ages, kneeling or sitting, praying and fanning themselves with equal fervour.’
‘We should remember,’ says Disraeli (Contarini Fleming), ‘that here [Cadiz], as in the north, the fan is not confined to the delightful sex. The cavalier also has his fan; and, that the habit may not be considered an indication of effeminacy, learn that in this scorching clime the soldier will not mount guard without this solace.’
In Spain, as in China and Japan, there is a fan for every occasion—for the street, where paper ones are used, these affording more breeze on a sultry day than do lace or silk; for feast days, bull-fights,[95] and the theatre, silk or lace fans, mounted on sandalwood, bone, ivory, or mother-of-pearl. A favourite material is silk, mounted on a carved wooden frame which opens and shuts easily, a most essential thing in a Spanish fan, which is perpetually in motion, portraying the feelings and thoughts that are passing through the mind of its owner.
The fan is in the hands of every one, from the merest baby to the big toreador, who employs it as a means of exciting the ire of his bovine adversary. It serves as convenient screen for the dark-eyed beauty, who, seated in the balcony in the still evening, listens eagerly to the impassioned serenade beneath.
At the theatre, says Blondel, nothing is more curious than the manipulation of these instruments, playing with the expressive grace which is a silent flirtation. Before the play begins, or during the intervals, every one talks in the midst of a confused noise resembling the buzzing of an immense swarm of flies. The curtain rises—all resume their places; the conversation ceases; the fans, everywhere waving in varied movement, gradually, one by one, tone down into regularity of time; they flutter in captivating cadence, suggesting in appearance a crowd of variegated butterflies, and charming the ear with their delightful ‘frou-frou.’