Lo, the glad gales o’er all her beauties stray,
Breathe on her lips, and in her bosom play!
In Delia’s hand this toy is fatal found,
Nor could that fabled dart more surely wound;
Both gifts destructive to the givers prove;
Alike both lovers fall by those they love.’
Two fine examples of early fans with subjects from classic mythology appeared at the Walker sale; the first having a skin mount painted with the Triumph of Amphitrite, in which the daughter of Nereus is seated in a shell drawn by dolphins, with attendant nymphs and tritons, a figure of Cupid, blindfolded, hovering above; this in allusion to Neptune having sent the Dolphin to intercede for him, and to bring his innamorata from the foot of Mount Atlas. The stick is rosewood, inlaid with rays of mother-of-pearl. The second, from the collection of the Duchesse de Nemours, representing the marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite, the subject covering the whole field of a deep mount; the stick, mother-of-pearl, carved with a pastoral scene and smaller panels of warriors.
Among the earliest English fans existing in private collections is a mount of the time of Charles I., the original stick of which is said to have been of gold, jewelled. The painting, a copy of the ‘Triumph of Bacchus,’ by A. Carracci, is attributed (probably erroneously) to Peter Oliver. The fan was given by the Princess Anne (afterwards Queen) to her god-daughter, Sarah Robinson, daughter of Sir John Robinson, Master of the Tower, and widow of the eldest son of Sir Humphrey Gore, on her marriage, in 1696, with John Harvey, Esq., of Ickwellbury, Beds. It is an example of a large class of fan mounts produced at this period, which were reproductions of the works of the greater Italian masters, many of which were, doubtless, copied by Italian artists, and either exported to England, or acquired in Italy by visitors to that country.
Two interesting marriage fans of the period of Charles II., both painted by the same hand, appeared at the Walker sale in 1882; the one, ‘An Ancient Marriage,’ with the bridegroom presenting ring, the bride wearing a floral chaplet and attended by maidens with distaff and flowers; the stick of ivory, carved with emblematic figures, mother-of-pearl inlay, and silver piqué. The subject of the other (Achilles and Deidamia) referring to the taking of Troy; on the reverse a view of the park at St. Cloud; the stick, mother-of-pearl, carved with subjects emblematic of marriage. These, doubtless, were made by the French fan-makers who had become domiciled in England, and probably, as Mr. Robert Walker suggests, for important court personages.