A Cool Collection: Antique Folding & Paper Fans

Chinese export carved ivory and painted paper fan depicting three port scenes; Macao, Canton and Hong Kong

So much of collecting is about a sense of nostalgia, and I doubt there is anything that stirs nostalgia like a hand-held fan.  I’m sure I am not the only one who spent hot Sunday mornings in church paddling the air with a vibrantly colored cardboard picture of Jesus or had a grandmother with paper fans from the local funeral home in her glove compartment.  Sadly, with cheap electric fans and air-conditioning everywhere, hand-held fans have faded away, but not with collectors!

Collectors obviously find much to admire in early folding fans, like the elaborate painted one pictured above.   Examples carved out of tortoiseshell and ivory are also always popular, as are more unusual examples like an American needlework-on-canvas fan.  However, with the advent of affordable color printing, the fan was quickly snapped up by the advertising industry to promote everything from Frank Sinatra and Lucky Strikes to Moerlein beer and, my personal favorite, the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

-Hollie Davis, Editor, p4A.com