The manufacture of the fan was entrusted to Mr. Alfred Clark, of 33 New Bond Street,[172] the work being carried out under his direction, and, we believe, on a principle of his own.
M. Édouard Moreau signed a number of fans from 1860 onwards, characterised by a charming delicacy of execution and elaboration of detail. A representative example is given, which appeared in the International Exhibition of 1862, and was purchased for the South Kensington Museum. This, an ivory brisé, is painted with three medallions of ‘The Tournament,’ ‘Before the Tournament,’ and ‘After the Tournament.’ The fan was made by Alexandre, and bears very favourable comparison with the best work of the eighteenth century. (Facing p. 87.)
A fan, also manufactured by Alexandre and painted by Moreau, was exhibited in 1870 by Madame Maurice Richard (au Ministère des Beaux-Arts, Paris). The vellum mount has for centre a medallion, with the initials ‘H. R.’ (Hélène Richard) surmounted by two doves. On either side are medallions with figures emblematic of Sculpture and Music, Poetry and Painting, painted en camaïeu on a gold ground by Moreau. On the reverse, in a medallion, the Genius of the Arts awarding wreaths to Sculpture, Architecture, Painting, Music, and Poetry. The ivory stick, carved and pierced in the style of the sixteenth century, is also painted by Moreau, with medallions of seraphs playing musical instruments, and supporting emblems of the arts they represent; the guards bearing the initials ‘H. R.’ in gold.
| The Meet. by Charles Detaille. | M. J. Duvelleroy. |
Many fans bearing Moreau’s signature have mounts of lace, the ivory stick being minutely painted with medallions of figure subjects near the handle end, usually three subjects enclosed in an ornamental setting. An excellent example is given from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. M. Duvelleroy (of Regent Street) also has a fan arranged on similar lines; another, in the possession of Mr. G. J. Rosenberg, was exhibited at Karlsruhe in 1891, both the last named being made by Alexandre.
This leads us to the important subject of lace mounts. The use of this delicate material for the fan, especially suited by its lightness and daintiness, has been revived during recent years.
A lace fan having in the centre the word ‘Elena,’ surmounted by a royal crown, was made at Burano and presented to Queen Elena of Italy on her marriage in 1896. In Devonshire, also, lace mounts have been made; in the Paris Exhibition of 1900 appeared a fan with a coat of arms in the centre, in which Miss Trevelyan adapted an Italian design to the old Honiton stitches, illustrated by Mrs. Bury Palliser in her work on Lace.
Fans have been, and are, a feature of the Youghal lace industry, established by the sisterhood of the Presentation Convent, county Cork, the oldest of the many that have sprung up under the fostering care of the Irish nuns, and dating back to the dark times of 1847, when famine decimated the rural population of the south and west of Ireland. The designs are in each instance furnished by the sisters, who are qualified under the Board of Education.
The Irish flat needle-point of Youghal, though doubtless derived in the first instance from foreign sources, may be said to have developed into a purely native art, capable of well holding its own against any contemporary foreign work.