If here he ‘Spies his own Dear Phiz;
And if mark’d out some fault he find,
Like one or two which warp his mind,
Bid the defaulter hence amend
And be the Sexes honour’d friend.
‘Publish’d by Ashton & Co., No. 28 Little Britain, May 1st, 1797, & Enter’d at Stationers’ Hall.’
Trips to Gretna were among the earliest results of the abolition of Fleet marriages by Lord Hardwicke’s New Marriage Act of 1753, one of the most famous of these clandestine marriages being that of Richard Lovell Edgeworth ten years later. The fan illustrates, in six scenes, the progress of a love match from the first meeting, to a marriage at Gretna, and final forgiveness by the bride’s father—‘The First Impression,’ ‘Mutual Declaration,’ ‘The Refusal,’ ‘The Flight,’ ‘The Journey’s End,’ ‘The Reconciliation.’
This subject also formed a favourite motif for the Staffordshire potter of the period, who produced a number of groups characterised by that quaint humour which appears to be native to him. It will be observed that in the fan, as in the pottery figure groups, the popular idea of the ‘blacksmith’ is perpetuated. This popular notion, however, is thus disposed of by Jeaffreson, the historian of matrimony (Brides and Bridals): ‘There is no evidence that any one of the Gretna Green marriages was solemnised in a smithy, or that any one of the famous Gretna Green ‘couplers’ ever followed the smith’s calling. One of these so-called parsons had been a common soldier, another a tobacconist, a third a pedlar, and all of them drunkards and cheats, but no one of them ever shod a horse or wrought an iron bolt.’
The state of widowhood also supplies the motif of a number of fans, the subject usually taking the form of a woman in classical costume, mourning over an altar, urn, or tomb; the central figure-subject generally engraved in stipple, the landscape completed by hand. Several examples are in the Schreiber collection, the most successful being that signed ‘F. Burney, del.; H. Meyer, sculpt.’
In the third group, subjects from classic mythology, the prevailing method or decorative scheme is that of an engraved medallion, large or small, occupying the centre of the fan, to be enclosed in, or incorporated with, an ornamental setting painted by hand; the character and treatment of the subject representing that pretty, sentimental quasi-classicism which set in about the middle of the century, and which we associate with the names of Cipriani, Angelica Kauffmann, and the engraver Bartolozzi. A characteristic example is the design by G. B. Cipriani, R.A., of Orpheus and Eurydice emerging from Hades, their way being lighted by the torch of Cupid. The medallion is engraved in stipple, the field of the fan being completed by ornaments in black, grey, pale blue, and silver.