Collections Explorer

Maker(s) &
Production:

Unknown, maker, Italy

Name:

folding fan

Date:

circa 1720 — 1730

Description(s):

Folding fan, double leaf paper, painted in bodycolour and watercolour and gilded. Sticks and guards of ivory inlaid with engraved mother-of-pearl, marbled and coloured lacquer and silver piqué. A Fête Galante scene.
Double leaf paper, painted in bodycolour and watercolour and gilded. Sticks of ivory inlaid with engraved mother-of-pearl, marbled and coloured lacquer and silver piqué. Guards of ivory and applied tortoiseshell inlaid with mother-of-pearl, coloured and marbled lacquer and silver piqué, thumb guard of mother-of-pearl (16+2). Rivet of mother-of-pearl. Front: Fête galante, with twelve people on a pavement with water in the foreground. On the left, two boys with baskets of grapes and fruit are serving a table; two women are sitting in the foreground, one with her arm on a cushion, the other courted by a kneeling young man. In the centre there is a sitting man and men playing a cello and a hurdy-gurdy. On the right, a drunken young man is courting a woman with a bottle in his right hand; between them in the background, a couple is sitting on the edge of the pedestal. In the background a naked statue standing on one leg with a drape over his hand, a fountain and a tree can all be distinguished. In the right corner, there is an urn on a pedestal with a satyr mask spouting water; in front of the sitting woman on the left there is an open chest with ribbons and to her left a statue of a bird is spouting water from its beak. The top is bordered with swags in different colours and decorated with gold. The top edging is of gold foil; the lower edging is painted in gold. Back: On a white background and a green floor with three trees, the right scene from the front leaf with the drunken man courting a woman is copied. The top border is decorated with similar swags. Sticks: in the centre a cartouche showing a couple, a winged child with a tail and a lion flanked by two sitting eagles is worked. On the right, the stick between the lion and the eagle is missing. The first four sticks on either side form cartouches, a bowl surrounded by flowers and two birds, but on the left side the second stick is missing; on top of each stick there is a shell. The reverse of the sticks is decorated in the same way. Guards: both guards are decorated in the same way: Panels of mother of pearl with lacquer insertions and a little of mother-of-pearl near the top

Technique(s):

painting; leaf
inlay (process); sticks+guards
pique; sticks+guards

Material(s):

paper; leaf
bodycolour; leaf
watercolour; leaf
ivory; sticks+guards
mother-of-pearl; sticks+guards+rivet
silver; sticks+guards

Dimension(s):

length, guards, 29.1, cm
width

Acquisition:

bought; 1985-01-28; Countess of Rosse, Anne

Associated
Person(s):

Messel, Leonard; owner
Countess of Rosse, Anne; owner

Alternative
Number:

old catalogue number; DR 22/275; Messel-Rosse Collection; 1985

Exhibition(s):

Treasures for the Nation, Conserving our Heritage. 1988-10 - 1989-02
Organiser: National Heritage Memorial Fund
Venue: British Museum, London

Documentation:

Wildenstein, Georges. 1924. Lancret.Colmar, Paris: p. 71
Ref; The scene on the front is painted after Nicolas Lancret, L'Automne (c.1731) engraved by N. Tardieu

Armstrong, Nancy. 1974. A Collector's History of Fans.London: London Studio Vistap. 49
Publ.

, British Museum27 October 1988-26 February 1989. Treasures for the Nation, Conserving our Heritage.London: British Museump. 75
Publ., p. 75, no. 48c

Crommelin, Rosemary. A Flutter of Fans.
Source Title: Holly Leaves Christmas (December-1963) : 36-37
p. 37
Publ.

Thornton, Peter K.. Une des plus belles collections d'eventails du monde.
Source Title: Connaissance des Arts No. 134 (April-1963) : 94-99
p. 99
Publ., p. 99, no. 10

Accession:

Object Number: M.28-1985
(Applied Arts)
(record id: 117614; input: 2004-12-07; modified: 2017-01-04)

Permanent
Identifier:

http://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/117614