18th & 19th Century Antique Fans

19th century finely-painted and gilt silk and ivory Neoclassical folding fan

18th and 19th Century Decorative Fans

Fans have been used since ancient times for cooling and more recently as an accessory for flirtation and fashion. Out of style by early in the 19th century, they reappeared as a fashion must have after their use at a ball hosted by Charles X at the Tuileries. Decorative fans come in two types-folding or leaf type, and rigid type, called Brise.

Folding fans of the 18th & 19th Century

Folding fans are constructed in one of two ways. The uprights, (called sticks, ribs or blades) are sandwiched between two layers of some pleated material (called a leaf, or mount) or the sticks are glued to the back of the mount.

Brise Fans

A Brise style fan is one in which there is no mount. Instead, the sticks are wide enough to overlap when the fan is opened. The sticks are bound together with ribbons of silk or satin. Feather Brise fans became popular late in the 19th Century.

Parts of a Fan

Leaf (or Mount) These can be made of a variety of materials, from inexpensive to elegant. In the 18th & 19th Century fans leaves were paper, vellum, or fabric. During the 18th century particularly, the finest vellum was made from unborn kid, and called, for reasons that nobody today knows, “chicken skin.” Fabrics used for mounts included silk, silk faille, lace, and silk gauze. Mounts were decorated with painted pastoral, historical of mythological scenes, or decorated in flower or geometric patterns with applied sequins, tiny bits of silk, or ivory.

Stick, (Rib, or Blade) Sticks were fashioned of wood, ivory. Wood sticks were sometimes veneered with mother-of-pearl or tortoise-shell, or in the case of Chinese fans, coated with lacquer and gilt. They could be plain and smooth, or intricately carved and pierced. Sticks for Brise fans were woven together with silk or satin ribbons. These ribbons are plain or embroidered.

Outer Guards are the shaped pieces that protect the fan when it is closed. Thees are thicker and wider than the other sticks.

Rivets or Pins are the pivoting fasteners that hold the sticks together at the bottom of the fan, and sometimes included a carrying loop or silken tassel.

-Reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Reference & Further Recommended Reading: