Of subject fans, historical or fanciful, that illustrated from the collection of Miss Moss (Antony and Cleopatra) is amongst the most charming in its quaint naïveté, and is almost certainly Dutch. The Queen is about to dissolve the pearl, which she exhibits to the astonished Antony and the serving-woman beside her. Cooks in the foreground prepare the dishes, while servitors carry them to the table. An old-fashioned chimney-corner is seen on the left, with fire-dogs and pot hanging. Music is provided by harpsichord, lute, and fiddle. The costume is of a nondescript character, Antony wearing an extraordinary plumed helmet, the Queen in ermined cloak, both having diadems. The mount, of skin, is particularly pleasant in colour quality, and probably belongs to the last years of the seventeenth century. The stick and guards of a later date. A still finer example, similar in the character of the painting, though of a somewhat later date, is the fan illustrated by gracious permission of H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, facing page 1; this was the gift of the Duke of Coburg to Princess Victoria (afterwards Queen) in 1836, from the collection of fans at Gotha. These two fan leaves, as also Lady Bristol’s, may be accepted as original productions, i.e. the work of artists possessing some inventive power, rather than, as in the case of so many fan leaves, mere transcripts of well-known pictures.
An extremely interesting type of mount has a large vignette, usually of two figures, occupying the centre, or the whole field of the fan. In these fans the sticks are of carved ivory, often strongly reminiscent of Chinese design, or having costume figures of the character with which we are familiar in early woodcuts. Two examples in the Wyatt collection represent pastoral groups, extremely good in style, the colour scheme being most effective.
| Dutch Fan, Ivory stick, carved, painted, & gilt. | Mrs Davies-Gilbert. |
| Dutch Fan, ‘Pagoda’ stick, applied straw work on leaf. | Mr L. C. R. Messel. |
In the treatment of the mount the Dutch invariably followed the practice of Italy and France. Many were painted in the Chinese taste, some in imitation of the finer fans of China. The sticks of these were usually of pierced ivory. An excellent example in the Wyatt collection shows in the centre compartment the garden of a Chinese house, with seated figures and visitors arriving. A panel on the right represents an astronomer making observations, and on the left is a fight between men in boats on a river. A capital effect is obtained in this fan by means of line work in gold, this being particularly effective over the blue water in the boat scene.
The fan illustrated facing page 198 is interesting from the cut-work of the mount, an imitation of the cut-work Italian fans of the seventeenth century; in this instance, the pattern is produced by means of stamping, done before the leaf is painted. The stick and guards are extremely effective, and are of ivory, pierced, carved, painted and gilt.
Flemish fans are often decorated with subjects from Scripture history; as Jacob and Rachel, Abraham entertaining the three Angels, scenes from the lives of Elijah, Ruth, and Boaz; these evidently for use at church. A fine example of the end of the seventeenth century appeared at the Walker sale in 1882, and passed into the Franks collection. This is a crowded composition of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea; the stick of plain ivory, the guards carved with figures of Bellona.
The subject of Rinaldo in the Garden of Armida also occurs on a fan in the Wyatt collection, the mount chicken skin, the style and colouring that of the later Roman school of painting. The stick and guards of ivory, carved with scroll-work and figures, the date about 1700.