CfotJ&m In all Hges ■ « A brief history of its evolution. To accompany an Exhibition of Fans, mostly French, of the XVIIIth Century, illustrating the decorative art of that period as applied to fans. Exhibited at the Grolier Club, 29 East 32d Street, New = York, from April 21 to May 5, 1891. Hite In all Hges ¥ A brief history of its evolution. To accompany an Exhibition of Fans, mostly French, of the XVIIIth Century, illustrating the decorative art of that period as applied to fans. Exhibited at the Grolier Club, 29 East 32d Street, New = York, from April 21 to May 5, 1891. A descriptive card is affixed to each fan in the present collection. The engravings of fans which are in frames on the wall represent the collection made by Mr. E. Bnissot, of Paris ; they are of the time of Louis XIV, XV and XV l. This collection came to New York, and some of them will be recognised in this exhibition. Fan of Madame de Pompadour. jfan. “ That graceful toy whose waving play With gentle gales relieves the sultry day.” Gay. That u instrument of love” we use to u mitigate the fever of the sky ” is as old as civilization itself. It had its origin in the East, where, as they say, the terrestrial Paradise was situated. And it must be so, no doubt, the fan being one of the weapons of coquetry, and coquetry having been born with the first motion of the first woman. The law that bids man pass from the simple to the complex holds good in the history of the fan as well as in that of all other works of human ingenuity. Like everything else it has its pedigree, u If a thorn was the first needle, no doubt a palm leaf was the first fan.” Nothing is more natural than that the leaves of the palm-tree, lotus, and banana-tree should 3 4 THE GROLIER CLUB. have been employed as fans first in their original state, then should have been worked upon, orna- mented and reduced to more suitable and elegant shapes. Cut No. 1 presents the form of the primitive fan as it is shown in the oldest Hindostanic bas-reliefs. There is scarcely a single old Indian tomb- stone on which these three inseparable companions of tropical man — fan, fly-broom and parasol — are not sculp- tured. In the great Sanskrit epic poem, the “ Mahabharata,” it is related that King Kila had a daughter endowed with the rarest beauty. She had charge of the sacred fire, and endeavored to make the fire blaze by usingherfan, instead of her delicate lungs Ancient Talapat j v or Palm-tree and charm- Fan from inglips. “But Hindostan. it was of no use,” concludes the poet; “the celestial fire not only would not blaze, but Ancient Bui- ^ a hnost expired ; being taken rush Fan. with love for Nakarita, it could not live without her breathing.” This prime- val fan is still at present a part of the attire of certain Buddhist priests in the kingdom of Siam, and from it they take their name of Talapoins, the fan’s name being talapat, “ palm-tree leaf,” in the Siamese language. THE FAN. O Cut No. 2 depicts a peculiar kind of fan about which very little is known, but which probably be- longs to the same period as No. 1, as monuments of the same period attest; it proves how man’s inge- nuity was already exercising itself in the manufacture of the fan. It is made of woven bulrushes, painted in various colors. Captain Basil Hall believed that the use of large fans hanging from the ceiling, and moved like bells by pulling a string, originated with the Eng- lish in modern times. That they were widely used in Italy and Spain as early as the fourteenth century, appears from a letter of the time by Gfuez de Balzac : in- deed, they are even of still greater antiquity, having been known to the Assyrians about three thou- sand years ago, as attested by the bas-reliefs found in the ruins near Nineveh. In the Egyptian cosmogony the fan was an emblem of happiness and rest as well as of authority. No 3> Egyptian That is why triumphal chariots were surrounded by fans and flowery boughs. The most ancient Egyptian fans known to us are thirty- five centuries old, and are of the form indicated by cuts Nos. 3 and 4. In a bas-relief at Nimroud is represented a slave in the act of cooling the liquid contained in a pitcher, by waving a fan shaped like a palm-leaf — a frequent subject of Egyptian decoration. 1A 6 THE GROLIER CLUB. Just liow and wlien the fan strayed into Egypt, whether with merchant or pilgrim, over desert or over sea, has not been clearly stated. But that it was conveyed thither at an extremely early date is shown by pictorial records extant in Thebes. In the temple of Medinet-Habau, Rameses III. (1235 B. c.) is represented attended by nobles bearing screen- shaped fans. These were composed of papyrus leaves, semicircular in form, of brilliant hue, sup- ported on long handles, parti-colored or entwined, and served invariably as battle standards. But it was under a softer rule that Egypt yielded more than these prosaic data, and we may indulge THE FAN. 7 in a little poetry in connection with Cleopatra’s sway. In her time the fan lost much of its martial character , drooping* to its most sensuous usage when it screened her voluptuous charms. Shakespeare, who has extolled Egypt’s sovereign coquette in a pen picture as immortal as her beauty, contributes incidentally to the story of the fan in the familiar lines : She did lie In her pavilion (cloth-of-gold of tissue), O’er picturing that Venus, where we see The fancy out-work nature : on each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-color’d fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid, did. From India, through the Assyrians, the fan was handed down to the Medes and Persians, with whom, according to Xenophon, it became, together with the fly-broom, a symbol of royalty. It was later that the fan was imported into Arabia. Toward the beginning of our era, the Arabians were accustomed to write inscriptions and religious sen- tences upon it; later on, they had ostrich -feather fans, as shown in cut No. 5. The stories of the u Arabian Nights ” contain the first record of these fans. It is related in u The Sleeper Awakened” that, when Abou Hassan fancied himself to be the commander of the faithful, he was introduced into a splendid banqueting-room where a table was spread. As he sat at the table, seven beautiful women began to fan him assiduously with their feather fans. Large feather fans obtained favor in Persia, where also an Assyrian bas-relief in the ruins of Koycundjik 8 THE GROLIER CLUB. preserves the drawing of a cooling apparatus similar to the Indian punkah of the present day. The Greeks received the fan from the Assyrians through intermediate trade with the Phoenicians. THE FAN. 9 Though Homer and Anacreon do not speak of it, it is nevertheless a fact that it was used in Greece. Euripides mentions it in his “ Orestes,” and sculptors often put it in the hands of their goddesses and women. Cuts Nos. 6, 7, and 8 give fans as repre- sented by the classical sculpture of the country. The fan is of equal antiquity in China and Japan, where it has always been extensively in use. In fact, it is an essential part of the national costume. It is on the fan that Japanese students take their notes $ it is by waving the fan that people salute each other in the street ; Chinese and Japanese soldiers handle the fan under the fire of the enemy • Generals in Japan carry a fan with iron ribs and silk cover, decorated with the arms of Japan. When the commander of a corps orders the attack, he throws his fan into the air as far as he can, as the Prince of Conde threw his baton into the enemy’s intren ch- in ent during the bloody battle of Fribourg in 1646. The form of Desima, an artificial little island of the Niphon archipelago constructed in 1635, and allotted as a residence to the Portuguese who had taken up their abode in Japan, is that of a fan, the question of its form hav- ing been determined upon by the emperor showing the engineers his fan. A very early Chinese fan is re- presented in an ancient miniature now in the National Library at IB W No. 9. From an ancient Miniature in tlie National Library at Paris. 10 THE GROLIER CLUB. Paris. See cut 9. The Chinese have a legend re- garding the invention of the fan. Lam-si, the tale runs, lovely daughter of an all- powerful mandarin of the Flowery Kingdom, was bidden to an imperial fete, which she attended masked, conformably to court etiquette of her day. Becoming intolerably heated she tore her mask from her face in defiance of custom, and fanned herself with it vigorously. She was so beautiful and so exalted in rank that her offense was pardoned and her example followed by others ; thus the hand fan had its birth and was universally adopted by both sexes. In Japan the fan underwent the greatest change and improvement that was ever experienced in its manufacture. From its leaf -like form it passed to the shape of the quadrant, and became handy, por- table, and folding. This pliable shape was first seen in the hands of the Japanese god of happiness, the process of fold- ing or overlaying having resulted from a study of the wings of a bat. It was adopted in China about 900 a. d., passed thence to Portugal, Spain, and Italy, reaching France with the Italian perfumers who accompanied Catherine de Medicis. On this side of the Atlantic, also, the fan has been in use for centuries past. In Mexico, the Toltecs, a nation that preceded the Aztecs, held it as a symbol of command. Ometenctli , their god, and Totec , the military disciple of the founder of their monarchy, are pictured as having a feather fan in their hand, similar to cut No. 10. Its name was Tleoatrekuaquet- zcilli ; another kind of Mexican fan was called Tsine&cantlauqueclioli , and a third TeocuytlayxcuaamaiL THE FAN. 11 After Greece the fan made appearance in Italy, where it maintained its vogue for a protracted period, finally vanishing from Europe with the last of the Caesars. It never lost caste ; it was everywhere a luxury, receiving fresh treatment and enrichment. A por- tion of its chronicle survives in Etruscan vase draw- ings; paintings unearthed at Herculaneum attest its usage in south- ern Italy; and both Virgil and Ovid refer to it. “ Dost thou wish,’ 7 Ovid asks of his be- loved, u that a gentle breeze cool the heat of thy cheeks This leaf, waved by my hand, will afford thee this pleasure, unless it be the' fire of my love rather than the warmth of the weather that inflameth thee, No. 10. and thy heart be Ancient Feather Fan of Mexico. burning with a more charming blaze.” In Rome, as well as in Greece, the fan of the wealthy had a very long handle to prevent any one fanning him- self, fashion decreeing that a young slave be em- ployed for this purpose. These slaves were called flabelliferi or u fan-bearers.” Christians, as Pagans before them, applied the fan to liturgic ceremonies, and the first Christian fan- makers were some Syrian monks, St. Fulgence and 12 THE GROLIER CLUB. St. Jerome. The oldest Christian fan transmitted to us dates from the sixth century, and belonged to Queen Theodelinda, the saintly princess who pos- sessed a nail of the holy cross which was hammered and set in the interior of the Iron Crown of the kings of Italy. This fan is preserved in the Castle of Monza, near Milan, and is shown to the tourist as a relic. It is of leather and is divided into two leaves, which, when the fan is not in use, are folded one upon the other (see cut No. 11) ; by means of a spring these leaves are opened out as shown in cut No. 12. The leaf is gilded and ornamented with pearls and rubies, and presents the traces of a Latin inscription (very likely a prayer) now illegible. The handle is of engraved gold inlaid with gems. Super- stition has lent the fan a magical power ; on a cer- tain day in the year, girls from the country around go to Monza in pilgrimage for the purpose of touch- ing it, as it is thought this will facilitate their mar- riages. THE FAN. 13 In the Apostolic Constitutions that are the funda- mental laws of the Catholic church, it was ordered that during mass, from the oblation to the commu- nion, two deacons standing on either side of the altar should wave each a peacock-feather fan, in order to add to the celebrant’s comfort as well as to prevent flies and other insects from alighting on the con- secrated offering. By Christians, too, the fan seems to have been regarded as a symbol of authority, be- cause while, owing perhaps to its increasing appli- cation to worldly purposes, it gradually fell into disuse in the performance of religious ceremonies, the pope retained the privilege of using it, and even at present, on estate occasions, he appears preceded by two fan-bearers carrying each a fan made of ostrich feathers. After a prolonged absence, the fan reappeared in Europe with the crusaders, who brought it in the shape of a small screen-like article from the lands of the Saracen, This trinket, infinitely modified, has ever since retained its place in the Occident. Fans were commonly used in France in the early part of the tenth century, as shown by Etienne Boi- leau’s manuscript book on u Trades” (1260). In the miniatures which adorn the most ancient secular MSS. ladies are represented carrying rice straw fans like those still seen in Tunis and Algiers, and figured in cut 13. The Italian fan, which had gained No. 13. Fan of Middle 14 THE GROLIER CLUB. already a great reputation for excellence of work- manship, was introduced into France by the Italian perfumers who followed Catherine de Medicis to the court of St. Louis. New kinds of fans appeared in Italy about this time, two of which are represented in the cuts Nos. 14 and 15. The first was made of fea- thers and artificial flower leaves. The second took its No. 15. Fan of Eleonora d’Este, Duchess of Ferrara. No. 14. XIV Century, Tufted. name from the lovely Princess Eleonora d’Este, so celebrated in connection with Torquato Tasso’s love and poems. This fan was connected with per- haps the happiest moment in the eventful life of the great poet. The beautiful Eleonora loved him : though bound by family duties she had never al- lowed her feelings to become known, and poor Tasso could only infer, from occasional gracious glances, that his love was not entirely in vain. One day he was reading to her the portion of his “ Jerusalem” THE FAN. 15 in which the attachment between Olinda and So- phronia is described. The lovely woman was enrap- tured and for a moment lost her self-control. Won by the poet, she was on the point of embracing the lover. She hesitated a moment, grasped her fan, kissed it, threw it at the poet’s feet, and filed. Another fan is called the flag, or turning fan, and is better known as “ Titian’s wife’s fan” from the one held by her in the portrait in the Dresden gallery. Another style of Italian fan is shown in the cut No. 16. At the end of the sixteenth century water-color painting began to be applied to the decoration of paper and parchment fans; the decoration was chiefly love scenes or views of some remark- able landscape. While it should be recorded that in various capitals of Europe — Venice, Padua, Naples, Madrid — ladies of rank never entirely abandoned the fan, it was not until 1380, in an inventory of the effects of Charles V. of France, that we find any allusion to a fan which could bend or double. This was embellished with the arms of France and Navarre painted on leather. Others similar to it were in use until the reign of Francis I., when the folding fan, as we know it, supplanted all previous styles. It took the fancy of the court and speedily gave rise to a novel industry, which supported a new class of skilled artisans, who called themselves “fan makers” to his majesty. The so-called “lambskin” mount was No. 16 . Early Italian Fan. 16 THE GROLIER CLUB. invented for Henry III., an effeminate monarch who made personal use of the fan as an addition to a full toilet. In France, during the reigns of Henry IV. and Louis XIII., the fan nearly gave rise to a civil war; the various corporations of artisans and dealers be- ing opposed to the acknowledgment of fan-making as an art distinct from the others, as this would have deprived them of the privilege of manufactur- ing and dealing in the article. It was only during the reign of Louis XIV. that fan-makers succeeded in having their rights recognized and chartered. In the seventeenth century fans showed a strik- ing tendency to increase in size. “ The Mercury,” a French paper of fashions, in a number of January, 1678, states that their size should be in keeping with the volume of the dresses worn ; at that time, as it is known, the guardinfante gave ladies the shape of immense demijohns, — no wonder, then, that fans were two feet square. But the reaction came ; this style of fan was replaced by the “Lilliputian,” or “imperceptible” ones. These suggested to Mme. De Genlis her saying — “When women were timid and blushed, they used to carry large fans and they hid their faces behind them. Now that they blush no longer and are intimidated by nothing, they do not care to hide their faces, and consequently they carry but microscopic fans.” In the first half of the sixteenth century the fan blades numbered four to sixteen ; silk textures came into use for the mount, and the fan fell open to a quarter circle only. Later the quantity of blades increased to as many as twenty-six. After the re- vocation of the edict of Nantes French fan-makers THE FAN. 17 fled to England, spreading the mode there among all classes. In Italy and Spain fans held continuous sway. In fact Spanish fans were extensively im- ported into France, until Louis XIV. sanctioned the reestablishment of a fan-makers’ guild in 1676. At this period Spain, Holland, and Italy attained the height of their industrial and artistic achieve- ments as fan- designers, and never again, in either a commercial or pictorial sense, have they equaled or approached French models. Spain in particular, whose women are so renowned for coquetry and grace in handling the fan, has not since acquired any distinction in its manufacture. u In the hand of a Spanish lady,” says Benjamin Disraeli, u the fan is a weapon that puts to shame the strategy of a regiment of generals.” France has frequently been called the true home of the fan, and from France certainly have emanated the most beautiful historic specimens we read of. The French artisan displayed a singular aptitude for the dainty workmanship requisite to this craft and a marvelous fertility in design. To the time of Louis XIV. belong the celebrated “Vernis Martin” ex- amples. Fans supposed to have come from his hand are recognized by the translucent, soft, durable varnish which he invented and applied, and which has never since been equaled. Whether he painted any of the pictures and decorations is doubtful. If he did not, the names of the artists who executed them have perished, with the exception of Huet, Vien, and perhaps another. Louis XV. made as much personal use of the fan as any beauty of the day and considered it an essen- tial feature of his dress. His liberal encouragement 18 THE GROLIER CLUB. of the fine arts as applied to the decoration of the fan has linked his name with its history to a greater extent than that of any other royal or noble patron. Famous artists like Watteau, Fragonard, Lancret, Boucher, Le Brun, Moreau, Eisen, Wille, and Maril- lier were engaged in the ornamentation of fans. Laces of the finest quality were used on the mounts, which were also decorated with miniature paintings of extraordinary merit. The fan in fact grew into an object of high art and upon it was lavished a degree of artistic skill which excites our greatest wonder and admiration. The fan of this period fairly reflects in its costliness and splendor the reckless extravagance and luxury which marked the age and which continued unchecked throughout the reign of Louis XVI. and up to the actual breaking out of the Revolution, when the fan again became a mirror of the time, and the favorite subjects for its adornment were The Convocation of the General States, The Inauguration of the Assembly, the portrait of Mirabeau, and repre- sentations of the three sisters, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. It will be remembered that Charlotte Corday carried a knife in one hand and the popular fan with the motto “ Freedom or Death” in the other, at the killing of Marat. The ingenuity of the Royalists was stimulated by the dangers to which they were exposed, and in order to communicate their political sentiments without discovery they devised the u weeping-willow fan,” the leaves of which, when examined closely, holding the fan turned upside down, represented images of Louis XVI., Marie An- toinette, and other members of the royal family. They contrived also transparent fans which only revealed their political meaning by being placed THE FAN. 19 against the light. To such a fan Madame De Cev- ennes owed her death, and on the scaffold she bravely waved a similar one which she had secretly procured. The fashion of painted fans continued during the No. 17. Mary Stuart’s Fan. Empire. Since that time a number of new fans have been invented, which have been, and still are, more or less in use. The fan made its appearance in England during the reign of Richard II., and at the end of the four- teenth century it was widely used among ladies of rank. Elizabeth received it with so much favor that she became known as the ‘ 6 Patron of fans.” She established a rule that no present, save a fan, should 20 THE GROLIER CLUB. be accepted by English queens from their subjects. Whether she acquired her own in this way or not, no less than twenty- seven fans were enumerated among her personal effects at her death. Cut No. 17 represents the prevailing style of the Eng- lish fan of that period ; it is a reproduction of one be- longing to Mary Stuart. Shakespeare in placing the scene of u Love’s Labour’s Lost,” at Navarre, France, records the English opinion of the feminity of the new fashion thus — u 0, a most dainty man ! to see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan ! ” Fal- staff , in the 66 Merry Wives of Windsor,” says to Pis- tol, u And when Miss Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took ’t upon my honor thou hadst it not.” By the early part of the eighteenth century the use of the fan became general even in the streets of Lon- don, and was used as an intermediary in affairs of love ; a vehicle for broad satire, for comic verse and epigram. The illustrations and paintings presented such themes as Hogarth’s “ Marriage a la Mode,” scenes at Vauxhall gardens, the Royal Academy, and at popular fairs. The rollicking humor of English everyday diversion was honestly reflected in the fan, though languishing beauties plied it as incessantly as their southern sisters. Gay wrote a poem on the fan, and Addison in the Spectator spent an amiable sarcasm on this craze and paraphrased the canons of u Fanology ” when he described u the angry flutter, the modish flutter, the timorous flutter, the confused flutter, the merry flutter, the amorous flutter.” Yet it must be owned that this affectation perfectly suited other artificial- ities of the society of his time, when u women could THE FAN. 21 not make up their minds to go out without first making up their faces.” Of the conversational fans, autograph fans, and other whimsical fancies in fans of later years, it is unnecessary to speak in this brief review of the most interesting facts in relation to the development of the fan. “ All ages, as we have seen, have contributed to its history, all countries to its substance. It has been a pet vehicle for artistic ex- pression and has proved more protean than any of the minor art forms which have drifted to us from traditionary periods.” In contemplating this superfluous little u objet de luxe” in the light of its vast descent, its haughty pedigree and artistic wealth, it is agreeable to reflect that Americans have never been indifferent to the charm of making collections. A number of New York women of wealth and intelligence shelter ad- mirable “ antiques” (as specimens are called which antedate the French Eevolution) in their cabinets, and occasionally carry them at a u costume” fete. By the courtesy of these collectors the Grolier Club has been enabled to make the present exhibi- tion, which has been confined, mainly, to the fans decorated by the great painters and the noted book illustrators of that era of exquisite taste and marvel- ous skill, the eighteenth century. For the use of the woodcuts and portions of this descriptive matter we are indebted to the publishers of “ The Century Maga- zine. The “ Histoire des Eventails, chez tous les peuples et h toutes les 6poques, par S. Blondel, Paris, 1875,” and other works on the fan have also been consulted. Fan of Queen Marie Antoinette.