It was at a gathering of wits at Poitiers in 1579 that Étienne Pasquier, perceiving a flea on the neck of Mlle. Desroches, exclaimed that ‘la petite bestiole’ deserved to be immortalised. A collection of poems in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian, was published in Paris in 1582, under the title of La Pulce de Mademoiselle Desroches, the most felicitous of these plaisanteries being, according to La Monnaye, from the pen of the lady herself.

The fan leaf, said to commemorate this event, once in the possession of the fair Pompadour, and now in the Jubinal collection at Paris, is of paper, elaborately cut to imitate lace. This leaf—the stick has long since perished—was exhibited at the great exhibition of fans at South Kensington in 1870. It bears five finely painted miniatures representing the senses; in the centre picture (touch) a young man places his finger on the bosom of a sleeping lady, the spot on the neck presumably representing ‘la petite bestiole.’89

The charming fan in the possession of Mr. L. C. R. Messel was obtained in Florence. The vellum leaf is finely perforated throughout; the large centre cartouche and series of small oblong panels are painted with exquisite minuteness and care. The character of the decoration is that of the later years of the seventeenth century, the stick of a subsequent date.

The great spirit of the Renaissance had well-nigh exhausted itself by the time the folded fan had become the vogue in Europe. Michael Angelo, the last of the Titans, died in 1564, and had lived long enough to witness the gradual extinction of the school he in great part created. Pierino del Vaga and Sebastian del Piombo had died seventeen years earlier.

The eclectic principle, developed to its highest attainable point by Raphael, Michael Angelo, Leonardo, was carried on by a crowd of men working on similar lines, but possessing far less knowledge and power, and what was vital truth in the work of the master was reduced to mere affectation in the hands of the follower.

During the closing years of the century, Italian art, it is true, received some sort of impetus as a result of the labours of the Carracci, but the revival was short-lived, and it remained to Guido, Guercino, Albani, Maratta, to continue the declension during the seventeenth, to be followed by Tiepolo and Canaletto in the eighteenth centuries.

It would serve no good purpose to quarrel with the painted folding-fan on account of its inability to rise to the high ideals of the quattro and cinque-cento. It belonged to a less spacious age, and if it descended to banality, it was because the times had become banal: it was entirely in tune with its surroundings.

It will be convenient, at this juncture, to describe in detail the various elements composing this fan-type which has easily distanced all others in the affections of the fair—a triumph so absolute and complete, that to ninety-nine women out of every hundred the idea of a fan is an instrument which may be folded.

The folding-fan, then, is made up of two principal parts—the stick (la monture) B B and the leaf or mount (la feuille) A. The former consists of a number of blades (brins) C C C C, which have varied at different periods, and are folded between two guards (panaches) D. The guard is made up of three dimensions: the handle-end (la tête) I, through which passes the pin (rivure) E—this is often jewelled; the shoulder (gorge) II, reaching to the lower edge of the mount; and the guard proper III.

The stick of the richer painted fans is composed of either ivory, mother of pearl, tortoise-shell, or bone: often carved with great minuteness, elaboration, and skill, and further enriched by gilding and inlay, painted miniatures, enamels, and precious stones; that of the less elaborate fan is of wood of various kinds—ebony, rosewood, bamboo, etc. It is also carved, gilt, inlaid, or lacquered in different ways.

The character of Italian sticks is that of simplicity and reticence, even to plainness, this being more in keeping with the generally grave character of the mounts. In a number of instances the brins present a perfectly flat, plain surface of ivory, relieved only by a little carving on the panaches. This is ornamented in various ways, the most characteristic method being that of gold and silver piqué. The work is done by means of a drill, the metal pressed into the spaces.

One of these Italian fans of the end of the seventeenth century, with plain white stick, is in the Wyatt collection, the skin mount painted with the Storming of Jerusalem, and the miraculous curing of Godfrey de Bouillon’s wound, the guards piqué with silver.

The beautiful Italian fan, with sea-nymphs upon a sandy shore, once belonging to the unfortunate Marie-Antoinette, and now in the possession of Mr. Burdett-Coutts, is an example of the best quality of piqué work. The stick is of horn of a light transparent golden hue. The panaches bear the crown and fleur-de-lys of France, and appear to be of somewhat later date than the brins and feuille, which may be put about 1760. The fan was acquired in Paris during the troublous times of the Revolution by the father of the late Rev. J. E. Edwards of Trentham, and exhibited by the last named at South Kensington in 1870. Upon the death of Mr. Edwards in 1885 it was purchased by the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Another method of ornamentation is that of delicate piercing, the surface of the stick remaining flat and without carving. These pierced ivory sticks are occasionally alternated with those of another material, as light golden tortoise-shell, horn, and, in an instance in the Wyatt collection, with a mount of classical landscape and Pompeian ornament, pierced cedar.

The Italians, as also the Greeks, discovered early the resources offered to the artist by the material of ivory. Ariosto in his sixth elegy makes a charming reference to it in addressing his mistress:

‘As when ivory or marble wrought by the hand of the artist becomes unchangeable, so my heart, more inflexible than these, though it may fear the hand of the assassin, is incapable of receiving the image of any new love to remove thine which is engraven upon it.’

The richest sticks are either those in which the piercing is associated with carved panels or cartouches of figures, ornament, etc., with the ribbed backgrounds familiar to us in Chinese workmanship, or those of which the whole surface is treated in the most delicate relief, exhibiting the most consummate skill of handling. This is occasionally further enriched by gilding, silvering, and painting; in some instances, these several processes are associated, with the addition of mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell inlay.

Mother-of-pearl is treated in precisely the same way as ivory, i.e. flat-pierced; pierced and carved; pierced, carved, and engraved; with, in some instances, the addition of painting, and occasionally tinsel and silvering or gilding.

The various kinds of mother-of-pearl used in the manufacture of fans are as follows:—The Burgan or Burgandine pearl obtained from Japan; the white pearl, ‘poulette,’ from Madagascar; a black mother-of-pearl from the East. The shells being relatively small, it becomes necessary to piece them together by a system of splicing. This is done so skilfully that none but a practised eye is able to detect it. For the process of inlay and incrustation, the splendid Eastern pearl called ‘gold fish’ is used. This, upon its introduction, caused a complete revolution in the ‘éventail de luxe’; the magnificent rainbow tints of this pearl are said to be further enhanced by a process invented by M. Meyer.

Tortoise-shell follows the same principle of decorative development, and when piqué is employed, it is usually gold, as being more in harmony with the colour of the shell.

The ‘éventail brisé’ dates from the period of the first introduction of the folded fan into Europe. This is so named because it has no mount, but is entirely made up of a number of blades, which may be of any material—ivory, mother-of-pearl, the various woods, etc., and are painted, carved, or otherwise decorated, fastened at the head by means of a pin or rivet, and further connected with a ribbon running through each blade, at or near the circumference of the fan.

The earliest are those which were imported in such large quantities from the East, from the latter part of the sixteenth century onwards. The Western modification of these is seen in that class of fans produced in Italy and elsewhere during the latter part of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, which consisted of a system of flat, pierced scroll-work, of a somewhat severe and reticent character. This was supplemented by panels en cartouche painted and gilt, with portions of the ornament enriched with gold and colour; these usually opened out to rather less than a third of a circle. Miss Moss of Fleet possesses an interesting example with a painted ‘pastorale’ of three figures in the centre of the fan, together with lesser subjects en cartouche, the floral portion of the scroll ornament being emphasised with colour.

In the Wyatt collection is an interesting example of about 1730, in which the ornament forms a large cartouche in the centre, enclosing a subject of two Cupids holding a wreath over a heart with a canopy above. The cartouche is gilt and the figures painted; the lower portion of the fan is painted and gilt with flowers in the Chinese taste. The guards are carved, painted, and gilt; the connecting ribbon of green silk ornamented with a pattern in gold.

This system was practised later, with the addition of carving in low relief, the ornament having developed a rococo character.

Horn is treated in the same process of flat piercing: this was extensively practised during the whole of the eighteenth century, and many ‘minuet’ fans were made. A beautiful Italian example of these ‘minuet’ fans is in the Wyatt collection, decorated with silver spangles, with a white silk connecting ribbon.

Double or reversible fans open both ways—either from left to right or the reverse. These were in vogue during the latter years of the eighteenth century, and were made of various materials, but usually ivory, with painted ornaments. The most interesting were, however, those of sandalwood, with three printed medallions on either side of the fan, giving twelve subjects. The device, although surprising at first sight, is really simple, and consists of printing each blade with portions of two different subjects in the centre, one set of halves being exposed, the other covered by the blade next following.

These fans were common to most of the Western countries of Europe, a large number being made in England with subjects after Angelica Kauffmann and others.

The materials employed for the mount are chicken skin (so called, but really kid subjected to a particular treatment), asses’ skin, vellum, parchment, silk of various kinds, satin, lace, and paper.

The leaf or mount is sometimes single, but more often double. Those of the richer fans are painted either in transparent colour or in gouache (body colour); the latter, however, must not be applied too thickly on account of its liability to crack.

When the leaf is ready for mounting, i.e. after the painting is finished, it is pleated in a mould consisting of two pieces of thick, strong paper or cardboard, specially prepared with a coating of an oily nature; the leaf being placed between, and the mould closed and pressed. The brins are then introduced between the folds, and fixed by means of glue. This mould was invented about 1760, and the manufacture of it has remained since that date in the French family of Petit.90 ‘This operation of pleating,’ says M. Duvelleroy (Rapports du Jury International, Exposition Universelle, 1867, vol. iv.), ‘very simple at present, was formerly very complicated; it was necessary for the éventaillistes to exercise the most scrupulous exactitude; now the mould dispenses with this care.’

Nothing that woman uses in the great art of pleasing can, however, be considered simple; do you doubt this fact? asks Charles Blanc, speaking of the modern collective mercantile system, rather than that of the artist, who begins his work and carries it to completion with his own hands. ‘No less than fifteen or twenty persons are employed in the making of a fan, which passes through three series of operations—1st, the work of the stick, in which are employed the cutter, the carver, the polisher, the gilder, the inlayer, the riveter, and sometimes the jewel setter, who inserts the precious stones; 2nd, the leaf, which requires the designer, painter, or printer as the case may be; 3rd, the work altogether, employing the gluer, and in the case of spangled or embroidered fans, the embroiderer or sempstress, and the folder or pleater.’ Finally, as in fitting, the last finishing touches—the tassels, tufts, and marabouts are added by the deft hand of a woman, and to quote again Charles Blanc, ‘when this formidable weapon of coquetry is completed, it is enclosed in a case, like a well-tempered blade in its sheath.’91

The most distinctive Italian mounts are those in which the whole field is occupied by subjects, usually from classic mythology. These are either direct replicas or rearrangements of the works of the later Italian masters—Giulio Romano, the Carracci, Guido, Guercino, as well as those French artists who either worked in Italy, or whose works found their way to that country, as Poussin, who spent the greater part of his life in Rome, Le Brun, and others. In these the chief interest centres in the mount, which is usually deep, and generally of skin, but occasionally of paper. The painting is in pure water-colour and also in gouache. In many instances these leaves have never been mounted; in others, the mount has been removed from the stick, and framed as a picture. None can with any measure of certainty be traced to a master-hand, although a fan appeared at the exhibition held in Drapers’ Hall (1878), which is declared to be by Pietro da Cortona (Berrettini), 1596-1667, and said to have belonged to the Marquise de Pompadour.

One of the earliest of these fan-mounts is in the possession of Mr. J. G. Rosenberg of Karlsruhe; the subject Orpheus and Iphigenia, the date about 1670. In the Jubinal collection is a Rape of the Sabines, an original design by F. Romanelli, who was employed by Louis XIV. on the frescoes in the Bibliothèque Mazarine.

Bacchus and Ariadne was a favourite subject—Guido’s well-known composition in the Accademia di Luca, at Rome, being often pressed into the service. The large engraving of Jacobus Freij was issued in 1727, and it is probable that the majority of mounts decorated with this subject were produced after the publication of the engraving. The version illustrated is from the collection of Lady Northcliffe; a skin mount, with slight differences in the arrangement, was exhibited at South Kensington in 1870 by Captain J. E. Ottley; a third is in the cabinet of an American collector.

The famous composition by Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Palace also appears on a number of mounts; a portion of this picture forms the subject of the centre medallion of Lady Northcliffe’s fan (illustrated).

The still more popular ‘Aurora’ of Guido supplied the subject of many mounts, including one in the Schreiber collection, British Museum.

Fans painted with Raphael’s well-known composition of the ‘Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,’ in the Villa Farnesina at Rome, appear in many collections, the landscape being added; the example illustrated is a typical one; the stick, however, is modern.

The fan in the Wyatt collection with the subject of Venus and Adonis, by Leonardo Germo of Rome, is interesting from the fact that it is an example of an artist, who, apparently, signed a number of fans, and also from the circumstance that it formerly belonged to Benjamin West. The mount is kid, the stick tortoise-shell, engraved, silvered, and gilt.

A fan with the subject of the Triumph of Mordecai, signed ‘Germo,’ was exhibited at South Kensington in 1870 by M. Chardin of Paris.

Another example in the possession of Lady Northcliffe has an allegorical subject by Germo, on skin, the stick of ivory finely carved, the guards mother-of-pearl.

Somewhat akin to the mounts above described are those elaborate compositions finely drawn in India ink, with pen or brush, on skin mounts, usually vellum. These, from the absence of colour, were used as mourning fans, the sticks invariably of ivory, piqué, or carved; they are included in most collections that make any pretension to completeness. Lady Bristol possesses one with the subject of Bacchus and Ariadne after Carracci; but by far the most splendid example of this class of fan appeared in the Walker sale in 1882. This is a crowded composition of the Triumph of Alexander (after Le Brun), in which the conqueror is seated in a chariot drawn by elephants; on the reverse the death of Actæon. The stick and guards mother-of-pearl, carved with Cupids and ornaments, painted in panels with episodes in the life of Alexander. Finely variegated gilding.

These fans are characteristically Italian, certainly Italian in their origin. Their production, however, was by no means confined to Italy. M. Duvelleroy has a Dutch example with ivory stick carved à jour, the mount vellum, the subject on the obverse representing an embarkation with numerous figures, on the reverse a dance of peasants with musicians. (Illustration facing p. 192.)

Neapolitan fans divide themselves into two distinct classes or groups—the first having a figure subject en cartouche in the centre, usually taken from classic mythology, the field being occupied by that form of arabesque (grotteschi), so usual in Pompeian wall decoration.

This class of mount dates from the re-discovery and unearthing of Pompeii in 1748, and its production was continued until the end of the century and later. Two excellent examples are given from the collection of Mrs. Bruce Johnston, formerly in the possession of Lord Bessborough. The one with the subject of Bacchus and Ariadne, from a fresco at Pompeii, bought in Naples by Lady Duncannon; the other of a sacrificial subject, also from a Pompeian fresco, obtained in the same city (in the eighteenth century) by Lady Ponsonby.

Many of these mounts have, in lieu of a single central subject, several miniatures en cartouche, associated with arabesques similar in character to those above referred to. A good example appears in the Wyatt collection at South Kensington.

In the second type of Neapolitan mounts, the field is similarly divided into panels, usually one superior and two inferior, representing views, generally the bay of Naples with Vesuvius in the distance, forming the centre panel, and Vesuvius in eruption, and a classic ruin on either side. These, with other Italian views, as the Colosseum in Rome, form a very large class; the panels being associated with arabesque or other ornaments.

Another, important class of Italian mounts gives a view of some famous building or place, occupying the whole field of the fan. Of this, no finer example could be given than the magnificent fan in the possession of Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P., of the Piazza of St. Mark’s, Venice, after Canaletto (Antonio Canal, b. 1687, d. 1768). The mount is skin; on the right is a group of performing acrobats surrounded by spectators; on the left some strolling players, with peregrinic theatre; on the reverse a view of Venice from the sea. The stick ivory, carved à jour, with characters of the pantomime, some being gilt and painted in ‘vernis Martin,’ others in the pure ivory; the guards carved with marks and musical trophies.

These acrobats, one of the popular Venetian amusements of the period, appear in ‘A Fête on the Piazzetta,’ school of Canaletto, in the Wallace collection.

This fan, together with one of a similar class, with a view of St. Peter’s at Rome, was acquired by the late Baroness at the Walker sale in 1882.

Fans were made for children in Italy and most other countries during the eighteenth century. These were both painted and printed, the latter variety often having the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, on the leaf, doubtless as serving an educational purpose. A collection of these children’s fans was exhibited by Miss Marie Josephs at Drapers’ Hall in 1890.

The beautiful Italian fan, ‘Cupid’s Hive,’ contributed by Lady Bristol, is so charming in the skill of its painted leaf, and the delicate carving of its ivory-jewelled stick, that it is difficult to conceive of its having been placed in the hands of a child. These fans occasionally appear in painted portraits, the Infanta Margaretha-Theresia, by Velasquez, in the Vienna Gallery, being an instance.

The foregoing includes all the principal types of fans produced in Italy during the period we have under consideration; they each present well-marked characteristics, and are therefore not difficult of identification. We have abundant written testimony to the superiority of the Italian workmen during the seventeenth century, and to the extent of the Italian export trade in fans during this period and even later. We have also the evidence of the fans themselves; we shall see, too, how the Paris éventaillistes first learned their craft from the Italian workmen who migrated northward. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, a complete change had taken place in the conditions of fan production, this period witnessing the rise of the French export trade, and the middle of the century its highest development, at which latter period Paris supplied not only Italy but Spain, and to some extent England also. Of this we have more than a hint from the pen of one of the most distinguished Italians of the latter half of the century.

The fan of Goldoni’s comedy was one of the ordinary sort, ‘not worth perhaps five paoli.’ The concluding lines of the play make it clear that a considerable trade in the cheaper French fans was done in Italy at this period (1763), and, by inference, that Paris fans had the best reputation, unless indeed we are to suppose that this was a compliment paid by Goldoni to the country of his adoption, from which, too, he enjoyed a pension:

PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES—Continued

SPANISH

RIGID SCREEN
(Carried by the married ladies of Bologna.)The Spaniards, says Henri Estienne, carried towards 1440 large round screens garnished with plumes, and in the sixteenth century folded fans, éventails plissés, enriched with gold and attached to the waist by a gold cord. Of these latter, many, doubtless, were imported from Italy; few, probably, were of native workmanship. A very small pleated fan appears in the hand of a Spanish lady, illustrated in Vecellio, 1590. The rigid flag-fan employed in Italy at this period was also used in Spain, together with the various plumed fans, some in the shape of a peacock’s tail; others formed of the feathers of the ostrich, pheasant, parrot, and Indian raven. During the seventeenth century and later, a large export trade in unpainted pleated fans was done in Paris to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they were decorated by native artists; many were exported complete, the authenticity of many so-called Spanish fans must always therefore remain a more or less doubtful question. The well-known story of Cano de Arevalo, given in Quilliet’s Dictionnaire des peintres espagnols, sufficiently testifies to the extent of the Paris export trade and the popularity of French fans during this period. This painter, who was a capable miniaturist, finding himself impoverished after a period of extravagance and dissipation, secluded himself for a whole winter, produced a number of fans, and passed them off as newly-imported French ones. The trick proved completely successful, for upon its discovery, he was not only hailed as a master, but was subsequently appointed abaniquero (fan-maker) to the queen. Cano was born at Valdemoro in 1656, and was assassinated in a bull-fight at Madrid in 1696. From the same source (Quilliet) we learn that Cano also ‘essayed water-colour painting on a larger scale, but only succeeded with fans,’ which are still esteemed, the few that are preserved.

This success of Cano must necessarily have given a considerable impetus to the native production of fans, largely used from the fifteenth century onwards by men as well as women.

In brief, the story of Spanish painting during the whole of the sixteenth century is that of a general migration of Spanish artists to Italy for purposes of study, with a consequent strong Italian influence; and an immigration of Italian artists to Spain, chiefly at the invitation of Charles V. The seventeenth century witnessed the rise and full development of a purely native school of painting, headed by Velasquez and Murillo, who, however, can scarcely be said to have exercised any influence upon the fan, since they were painters pure and simple, i.e. their works were distinguished by the qualities of the painter rather than those of the designer; and, especially in the case of Velasquez, their subjects were unsuitable to the fan.

We do not usually look to the last-named painter for elaboration of detail. The folding-fan in the hands of the Spanish lady by Velasquez, ‘La Femme à l’Éventail,’ at Hertford House, would appear to be of leather, judging from the colour and texture, with applied ornaments at regular intervals. This is probably of the scented variety, peau de senteur, made both in Italy and Spain at this period.92 We have already referred to the portrait of the little Infanta Margaretha-Theresia by Velasquez in the Vienna Gallery, in which a closed folding-fan is represented.

In the Prado at Madrid appear the following portraits:—

The interesting fan representing the capture of the Balearic Islands by the Spaniards in 1759 may be taken as of Spanish workmanship. The subject is taken from a painting in the Escurial. The stick is ivory, carved à jour with three cartouches, painted and gilt; in the centre appear figures of commanders on horseback, a march of troops on the one side and warships on the other; the background ‘gold-fish’ inlay. The paper mount is painted in gouache; and on the reverse is a view of a fort. The style of the painting presents similar characteristics to a fan mount in the Schreiber collection, British Museum, in which we are introduced to a ‘Carrousel at Madrid,’ with a large square filled with spectators appearing at the windows of the houses; in the centre of the background is a pavilion with the king and suite, inscribed Carlos III., and a performance of a number of horsemen led by the ‘Duque de Médinacéli,’ the ‘Marques de Tabara,’ and the ‘Marques de Aztorga.’ The leaf, which has been removed from the stick, is of paper, painted in gouache. A fan of this subject appeared in the exhibition of fans at South Kensington in 1870, in the possession of Madame Charles Heine of Paris; the stick of tortoise-shell, carved and gilt.

This same king, who succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759, figures as the subject of two fan designs in the Schreiber collection, the one representing his triumphal entry into Naples in 1734 on his election to the crown of the Two Sicilies, with the subject inscribed in Spanish; the leaf signed ‘F^o La Vega Hisp. Let. D.’; below the picture, ‘Miñado por Cayetano Pichini Romano.’ The other, a companion fan design, represents the sham-fight and siege of Gaeta in 1734 on the occasion referred to above; a canopy bears the arms of Spain, and on either side a trophy with the arms of Medicis and Farnese; the subject inscribed in Spanish: ‘F^oo La Vega Hispa^s Bilbilitanus In^v e Delineavit Roma’ and ‘Miⁿado Por Leonardo Egiarmon Flamenco.’ Both these fan designs are vigorously drawn with pen in bistre and worked with India ink, the style betraying a strong late Italian influence.

One of the first acts of Charles, upon his accession to the throne, was to enter into a treaty with Louis XV. known as the ‘Pacte de famille,’ by which these two kings of the house of Bourbon united themselves into an offensive and defensive alliance. By the terms of this treaty, signed 15th August 1761, Spain was obliged to take part in the war in which France and England were then engaged, France hoping to avail herself of the maritime power of Spain, and to prevent Portugal from declaring common cause with England. Its only effect, however, was to inflict upon her ally a series of disasters similar to her own, Spain losing Cuba, Manilla, and the Philippine Islands, and France Martinique, besides being finally expelled from Canada, thus completing the work begun by Wolfe at Quebec some two years previously.

The sequel to these events was the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the preliminaries of peace being signed at Fontainebleau on the 3rd November of the previous year.

By the terms of this instrument, Canada, the islands of Minorca, Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica and Tobago were ceded to Britain, while to France were restored Belleisle on the French coast, the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon near Newfoundland, Martinique, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, Desirade, and St. Lucia in the West Indies. Havannah was restored to Spain, the Spaniards in return ceding Florida to the English, and agreeing also to make peace with Portugal.

In La Revue Hispanique, tome viii., appeared an article by M. Gabriel Marcel, reprinted in pamphlet form under the title of ‘Un Éventail Historique du dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1901,’ describing and illustrating a remarkable fan in the cabinet of a Parisian amateur whose name is not given, commemorating the event above referred to.

The stick is ivory, carved with an agreeable pell-mell of cartouches, gilt; the centre being occupied by a conversation galante of four figures in the costume of the Watteau period.

In the centre of the skin leaf, finely painted in gouache, is a stone table carved in high relief with figures of Cupids, near which are the Kings of France and Spain, each accompanied by a female figure representing the respective countries, and bearing a shield of arms; above, a figure of Peace crowned with olive leaves appears from the clouds and directs the ceremony. In the middle distance is a tribune on which are seated three female figures, with a cornucopia of abundance, and the arms of France and Spain; above is a figure of Fame with a trumpet.

In the more immediate foreground are the Kings of England and Portugal, their identity being determined by the blazoning of the shields which accompany them. Court officials, together with their ladies, complete the composition.

The reverse, which is less interesting, and probably by another hand, represents an architectural structure with, again, the arms of France, and above, those of France and Spain entwined.

Although it is possible that the fan may be of Spanish manufacture, it is more probably French, since it bears all the characteristics of French work of the period of Louis Quinze. It was probably made either for a royal princess, or for the wife of some prominent official who took part in the negotiations of the treaty.

The classical revival of the middle of the eighteenth century was not without its effect on Spain; fans being painted in this country also with subjects from the Greek mythology. At the exhibition at South Kensington in 1870, the Dowager-Countess of Craven exhibited a large Spanish dress fan, the mount richly painted on vellum, with a centre subject of Aurora and Zephyr, the floral ornaments embossed in gold and spangled; the stick carved ivory and mother-of-pearl, with figures in gold relief variegated and spangled, jewelled stud.93

Towards the middle of the eighteenth century onwards, a class of fan was made in which the stick, usually of tortoise-shell, but also of ivory and other material, was elaborately pierced and carved, occasionally in the most ornate fashion, the brins numbering from eight to ten, the guards wide, both being heavily incrusted with gold and silver. The mounts of these fans were always narrow, measuring about three-sevenths of the length of the stick. This class of fan, examples of which appear in most collections, by general consent has been associated with Spain, although, doubtless, it was produced in other countries also.

One of the earliest of these fans, as well as one of the finest, is that in the possession of Lady Bristol, described and illustrated in the succeeding chapter, page 163. This, from the skill displayed in its finely designed stick, and the style of its delicately painted leaf, is more probably French than Spanish. Interesting examples of this class of fan are given from the collections of H.R.H. the Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Brandenburg and Mrs. Frank W. Gibson. In the first-named instance the stick is tortoiseshell, with gold incrustations of figures of Roman warriors, musicians in the costume of the period of the fan (c. 1780), Cupids, and other ornaments: the leaf a pretty pastoral; the work, although probably Spanish, showing a strong French influence.

Mrs. Gibson’s fan belonged to her grandmother, who was a Spaniard; the leaf, probably, represents the betrothal of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, Louis being but sixteen at the time of his marriage in 1770. The Austrian Court was closely allied to that of Spain; and this subject, therefore, would naturally appeal to the Spaniards. A wedding fan occurs in the collection of Lady Lindsay, having for its centre medallion a lady’s dressing-room, with Cupid holding a mirror; on the sides are a Cupid lighting his torch from an altar, and a Cupid with bow and arrows. The stick of tortoise-shell, finely silvered and gilt.

CORRIGENDUM

Page 132, line 12 from bottom, for H.R.H. the Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Brandenburg, read H.S.H. the Princess Victor of Hohenlohe Langenburg.

A remarkable fan in this same collection was brought from Madrid by Lady Canning, who accompanied Sir Stratford Canning to Spain on a special mission from Queen Victoria, and was given to Lady Lindsay in 1878. The stick is of ivory, finely and elaborately carved; the mount, skin, painted in the Chinese taste; illustrated facing p. 127.

The character of Spanish work of the stick, which, with a few isolated exceptions, never reached a high level of attainment, materially deteriorated towards the close of the century. A fan appears in the Schreiber collection, with ivory stick, indifferently carved and gilt, the silk leaf having for its subject a large medallion of the surrender of Minorca in 1782, with the English army evacuating the island, and the Spanish flag waving over the fort of S. Phelippe; the sides decorated with vases of flowers embroidered, painted, and spangled; the subject inscribed in Spanish along the top border of the fan.

Of the treatment of the stick, two interesting examples in the Wyatt collection may be referred to—the one, belonging to the early part of the century, in which painted trellis-work in blue and brown is introduced as a background to finely pierced and carved cartouches of figures and other subjects, the ornament being enriched with gold; the other with a paper mount representing the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon (probably a church-fan), the mother-of-pearl sticks engraved with three figure subjects en cartouche, with elaborate scroll-work; the leading features of the ornament, together with portions of the figures, being emphasised with thin lines of gold, having an extremely pleasant effect; c. 1750.

Spanish painting in the latter half of the eighteenth century experienced some revival in the person of Francisco Goya, one of the most extraordinary personalities who ever wielded a brush, and whose greatness is only just beginning to be adequately recognised, chiefly, however, on account of his etchings, of which he produced a number.94

If we may conceive Goya as ever touching the fan, the example illustrated, from the collection of Lady Northcliffe, is just such a one as he might have painted. At any rate this may be considered as a typical Spanish fan. The silk leaf has in the centre a mounted picador, with six medallions of bull-fights; above the picador are two Cupids holding a shield of arms, with thirteen other shields along the upper border, bearing the arms of Biscaria, Cordova, Majorca, Valencia, Arragonia, Leon, Castillia, Navarra, Toledo, Gallicia, Andalusia, Murcia, and Catalonia. The shields, together with the medallions, are bordered with embroidered spangles; the ivory stick and guards finely pierced and inlaid with gold and silver.

The charming spangled fan in the possession of Mr. Talbot Hughes may also be accepted as of undoubted Spanish workmanship. In this, the leaf is of white silk, painted with a female figure in a garden, arranging flowers from a basket. The head is an applied miniature on ivory, a device much affected by the Chinese; the necklace, seed pearls appliqué; the dress completely of spangles. The leaf is enriched with a border of gold and silver sequins of various forms, some being set with crystals. The stick ivory, coloured, gilt, and decorated à la paillette. The date about 1800.