The scene is the interior of Mercer’s Hall, Ironmonger Lane, Cheapside, where transactions connected with lotteries took place, showing the platform with side galleries conveniently arranged for a crowd of gay gallants and fashionable dames in the full costume of the period; the lottery tickets are in the course of being drawn by Blue-coat boys, a wheel on either side for blanks and prizes. The design, says our author, is identified with a contemporary engraving by H. Parr, ‘Les divertissements de la Loterie,’ designed by T. Marchant, drawn by Gravelot, and published by Ryland. Gravelot was a French engraver and decorative painter, invited to this country by Claude Dubosc to assist in illustrating a sumptuous history of the campaigns of Marlborough.
Of topographical fans, that owned by Miss Moss, giving a view of Kensington Square as it appeared in the latter half of the seventeenth century, is amongst the most interesting: it is extremely fresh in colour, and exhibits a quaint sense of decorative treatment.
A fan with a view of Cavendish Square is attributed to Canaletto, who in the latter part of his life visited London, where he was held in great estimation. The subject is enclosed within a cartouche, with flowers, etc., in the Chinese taste covering the rest of the field. The stick is of ivory, carved à jour, with figures, birds, and foliated ornament; the edges, when closed, form a subject in relief of birds, insects, and fruit, this being a device adopted both in Holland, France, and Italy, but especially in the first-named country. See page 202.
This fan appeared at the Walker sale in 1882, when it was acquired by the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
Spangles appeared about the middle of the century, following the fashion of France. These served as borderings to subject medallions, and emphasised the leading lines of the design. A characteristic fan of this period, 1750-1780, has either one or three medallions or cartouches, of pastoral or other subjects, with graceful figures reminiscent of Gainsborough, Hoppner, and other masters of the English school. These figure medallions were usually supplemented by smaller ones of musical or other trophies, dainty flowers, festoons, and borders, the mount being usually silk.
The sticks of these fans were narrow, the number varying from fourteen to sixteen, including the panaches, the latter delicately carved à jour. The material was generally ivory, but occasionally mother-of-pearl. The brins were perfectly straight and flat in the shoulder portion, but invariably richly decorated with embossed gold and silver work, this often taking the form of a cartouche extending over six or eight of the sticks, spangles also being freely used.
It would be difficult to discover a more perfect example of this class of fan, so peculiarly English in type, than the one exhibited at South Kensington in 1870 by the Baroness Meyer de Rothschild. In this the centre medallion represents a lady carrying a lap-dog, visiting a friend who is seated at an embroidery frame; on the inferior panels, a girl playing with a dove, and a boy with a bird-cage and a tethered bird. The mount is silk, with spangled borderings, the stick ivory, finely carved à jour, decorated in variegated gold; jewelled stud. (Illustrated facing p. 180.)
A number of fans were painted by Poggi, who was publishing engraved fans at this period, and whose fans enjoyed a high reputation. We find the following entry in Madame D’Arblay’s Journal for March 1781:—
‘Tuesday.—I passed the whole day at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s with Miss Palmer, who, in the morning, took me to see some beautiful fans painted by Poggi, from designs of Sir Joshua, Angelica, West, and Cipriani, on leather. They are, indeed, more delightful than can well be imagined; one was bespoke by the Duchess of Devonshire, for a present to some woman of rank in France, that was to cost £30.’
