| A London Fan Shop, c.1745. | Mr L.C.R. Messel |
| The surrender of Malta. | Mrs Hungerford Pollen. |
The marriage of Charles II. with Catherine of Braganza in 1662 is another landmark in the history of the fan in this country. The Queen and her Portuguese ladies introduced the gigantic green shading fans of Moorish origin, which, in the absence of parasols (then unknown in England), served also to shield the complexions of the ladies from the sun, when they did not wish wholly to obscure their charms by putting on their masks. The Indian trade, however, opened up by Catherine’s marriage treaty, soon supplied the ladies of England with fans better adapted, by their lightness and elegance, to be used as weapons of coquetry at balls and plays.[119]
Large numbers of fan mounts were also imported from Italy, both at this period and later. These are referred to incidentally in one of Steele’s letters to the Tatler, April 23, 1709. ‘I am just come from visiting Sappho [probably Mrs. Elizabeth Haywood, who had been some time on the Irish stage]. As I came into the room she cries, “Oh, Mr. Bickerstaff, I am utterly undone; I have broken that pretty Italian fan I showed you when you were here last, wherein were so admirably drawn our first parents in Paradise asleep in each other’s arms.”’[120]
The fan of Pope’s epigram was, it will be remembered, painted with the story of Cephalus and Procris, the motto ‘Aura Veni.’
‘Come gentle air! th’ Eolian shepherd said
While Procris panted in the secret shade;
Come gentle air! the fairer Delia cries,
While at her feet her swain expiring lies.