As a souvenir of the event, the gallant and resourceful Captain further persuaded Mr. Osborne to have a fan engraved and presented to each of the lady visitors.
| Mr Thomas Osborne’s Duck Hunting, obverse & reverse. | Schreiber Colln., British Museum. |
This is engraved on both sides; on the obverse, the duck-hunting, with the Captain and his innamorata in the immediate foreground; on the reverse, a general view of the house and grounds.[155]
Conversation- or speaking-fans are devices by which the different motions of the fan are made to correspond with the letters of the alphabet, a code being established by means of which a silent and secret conversation is carried on.
Five signals are given, corresponding to the five divisions of the alphabet, the different letters, omitting the J, being capable of division into five, the movements 1 2 3 4 5 corresponding to each letter in each division. 1. By moving the fan with left hand to right arm. 2. The same movement, but with right hand to left arm. 3. Placing against bosom. 4. Raising it to the mouth. 5. To forehead.
Example:—Suppose Dear to be the word to be expressed. D belonging to the first division, the fan must be moved to the right; then, as the number underwritten is 4, the fan is raised to the mouth. E, belonging to the same division, the fan is likewise moved to the right, and, as the number underwritten is 5, the fan is lifted to the head and so forth. The termination of each word is distinguished by a full display of the fan, and as the whole directions with illustrations are displayed on the fan, this language is more simple than at first sight might appear.
The Gentleman’s Magazine for 1740 prints the following effusion, referring presumably to one of the earliest of these fans:—
‘A speaking fan! a very pretty thought;
The toy is sure to full perfection brought: