In fond embrace, and so has satisfied
The doating love of his pretended sire—
Turns to the Queen. Her eyes and all her soul
She fixes on him; yea, and in her lap
At times she fondles him—unhappy Dido—
Not knowing how great a god is nestling there!’[110]
The so-called ‘Cabriolet’ fan, introduced during the reign of Louis XV., represents a new and interesting development. In this the mount is divided into two parts, superior and inferior, the latter being half-way up the stick, the former in its usual place at the top; the intervening space imparting a lightness and richness to the fan not obtainable by other means, the mount still affording a sufficiency of space for decoration on a less extended scale. This usually consists of Parisian scenes—persons driving in cabriolets, or promenading, either painted or engraved as the case may be, since both processes were adopted.
The cabriolet, introduced by Josiah Child in 1755, was a light two-wheeled carriage which obtained great popularity in Paris. Horace Walpole, writing to his friend Mann in the same year, says:
‘All we hear from France is, that a new madcap reigns there, as strong as that of Pantins was.[111] This is la fureur de cabriolets, Anglicè one-horse chairs, a mode introduced by Mr. Child. Everything is to be en cabriolet; the men paint them on their waistcoats, have them embroidered for clocks to their stockings, and the women, who have gone all the winter without anything on their heads, are now muffled up in great caps, with round sides, in the form of, and scarce less than, the wheels of chaises.’
Two varieties of these rare fans appear in different collections; a larger and richer fan measuring some twenty inches and opening out to a little more than a third of a circle, the sticks numbering twenty-one, including the panaches; another about an inch smaller, with less carving on the sticks, and made at a later date.