A PAINT collection

this at South Kensington: the most dainty, the most extensive, ever assembled at one time and place in this country. Here are fans of many different centuries, exemplifying the ordeal through which fashion seems destined to pass, and at the same time showing how remarkably individual fancy can assert itself in special instances. Not only are there choice specimens of English production, but illustrations likewise of the handiwork of Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Holland, and Belgium; and, in more distant climes, of India, China, and Japan. It would not be easy to assign a market value to these four hundred fine examples of workmanship; because some of them, ranking as works of art, would be objects of very eager competition at Christie's or Sotheby's, and would realise prices far ahead of those which were paid for them when originally manufactured; while other specimens would have a high value attached to them, irrespective of their beauty, on account of the distinguished ladies to whom they now belong or once belonged. Not only have the great French fan-makers-such as Duvelleroy, Alexandre, Chardin, and Fayet-contributed some of their choicest productions; but royal and noble ladies have freely assisted to make the collection large and complete. Queen Victoria has sent seventeen fans, the Empress Eugénie nearly double this number; while the English nobility are represented by the Duchess of Northumberland, Countess of Warwick, Lady Lindsay,

Countess of Craven, Lady Drake, Countess Granville, Countess of Tankerville, Countess of Dudley, Countess of Shaftesbury, &c.; and the French nobility by la Vicomtesse d'Aguardo, la Comtesse Duchâtel, Princess Metternich, la Comtesse de Beaussier, la Duchesse de Mouchy, la Comtesse d'Armaillé, la Comtesse de Bardaillac, la Comtesse de Pourtalès, &c. Lady Wyatt is the most lavish contributor of all, having sent in no less than seventythree fans, of various ages and countries, but all remarkable in their artistic features. And gentlemen, too, though not fan-users in Europe, have been fan-buyers, and have contributed out of their stores to this very choice and pleasant collection.

Who can tell us when and where the fan was first used? As its real purpose is to create an artificial breeze of cooling air in a warm atmosphere, we may naturally look to hot climates as the land of its birth. We know that there were fans in Egypt three or four thousand years ago, for they are represented in paintings on the walls of the buildings at Thebes. Indeed the fan-bearer was a high officer among the Pharaohs using his fan as a standard in war, as a breeze-creating instrument in the palace, and to wave off noxious insects from the sacred offerings in the temple. The ancient Greeks used fans very beautiful in form; sometimes the wings of a bird joined laterally, and attached to a slender handle; sometimes feathers of different lengths spread out somewhat in the form of

a semicircle, and affixed to a handle. The Roman ladies had gorgeous fans of peacocks' feathers and tinted ostrich plumes, held by attendants. We know that noble ladies in Europe used fans in the thirteenth century; but it is uncertain how much further back the usage could be traced. The folding-fan, as we now know it, was certainly invented in Japan, from which country it went to China, thence to Portugal (in the fifteenth century), thence to Spain and Italy, and (in the sixteenth century) to France and England. The fan-trade has never at any other period been so important in Europe as it was about the middle of the last century, when a fan was quite indispensable to a lady, and when nearly every lady had an assortment of them. It was an important implement for fascination, for grace, for love-making, for coquetry, for a kind of silent talk on all sorts of subjects. One poet called it the 'sceptre of the world.' A French lady, of the time of Louis Quartorze, declared that however agreeable, graceful, and elegantly dressed a woman might be, she would necessarily be ridiculous unless she knew how to handle a fan; that you could tell a princess from a comtesse, a comtesse from a marquise, a marquise from an untitled lady, by delicate movements of the fan; and that this subtle instrument by its opening and closing, its rising and falling, its sweeping and waving, its pointing and beating, might be made significant of an almost infinity of meanings. Addison, long before this, talked very pleasantly in the 'Spectator' of the language of the fan. He supposes a regiment of young ladies drawn up in line, and going through the fan exercise, obeying the words of command 'handle your fans,' 'unfurl your fans,' 'discharge your fans,' 'ground your fans,' recover your fans,' 'flutter your fans,' &c. The description of three of these evolutions, the 'handling,' the 'unfurling,' and the 'fluttering,' is very rich. Upon giving the word "Handle your fans," each lady shakes her fan at me with a smile, then gives her righthand neighbour a tap upon the

shoulder, then presses her lips with the extremity of the fan, and then lets her arms fall in an easy motion.' The 'unfurling' is effective, because it gives an opportunity of displaying the dainty devices painted on the fan: This part of the exercise pleases the spectator more than any other; as it discovers on a sudden an infinite number of Cupids, garlands, altars, birds, rainbows, and the like agreeable figures, that display themselves to view.' Then, as to the order 'Flutter your fans:' There is an infinite variety of motions to be made use of in the flutter of a fan. There is the angry flutter, the modest flutter, the timorous flutter, the confused flutter, the merry flutter, and the amorous flutter. Not to be tedious, there is scarcely any emotion in the mind which does not produce a suitable agitation in the fan; insomuch that if I only see the fan of a disciplined lady, I know very well whether she laughs, frowns, or blushes. I have seen a fan so very angry, that it would have been dangerous for the absent lover who provoked it to have come within the wind of it; and at other times so very languishing, that I have been glad for the lady's sake the lover was at a sufficient distance from it. I need not add, that a fan is either a prude or a coquette, according to the nature of the person who bears it.' Then the P.S. is worthy of the rest: 'I teach young gentlemen the whole art of gallanting a fan.'

Many a pleasant episode is connected with the fans in this beautiful collection, relating either to the fair owners themselves, or to the circumstances under which the ownership has changed from time to time. Among those contributed by Lady Wyatt is one which was presented to her grandmother on her wedding day, nearly a century ago: a bespangled silken mount, with carved and gilt ivory stick, and enamelled and embossed guards. A vellum fan, painted by Vidal and Hervy, and mounted in pierced and carved mother-of-pearl, was presented to the Empress Eugénie when she distributed the prizes at the Paris International Exhibition in

1855. A French fan with a modern mount has a stick which once belonged to a fan of Madame la Marquise de Pompadour, in the gay days of Louis Quartorze. A fan which formed part of the weddingsuite of the Empress is here, marked with the date 30 January, 1853. An old Chinese fan with a stick of gold filagree having enamel enrichments was presented by the Chinese ambassador in 1804, on the occasion of the coronation of Napoleon I., to Madame la Maréchale Comtesse Clausel; whose granddaughter, Madame de Ville de Sardelys, is now the owner of it. A more historically interesting fan is that which belonged to the hapless Queen Marie Antoinette; she gave it to her 'keeper of laces' in 1789, from whom it passed through the hands of Madame la Bruyère to M. de Thiac; the carving in ivory of the 'Interview between Porus and Alexander' is very dainty work. An old ivory French fan, decorated in 'Vernis Martin,' is the one which Madame de Sévigné described as containing a picture of 'The toilet of Madame la Marquise de Montespan.' We may here remark that Vernis Martin is named from a celebrated coach-painter, Martin, who, in the time of Louis XIV., applied the arts both of painting and of varnishing in a very beautiful way to fans. The fan presented by the Empress Eugénie to the Comtesse de Pourtalès, made by Alexandre of Paris, has exquisite little enamels by Solier, imbedded in the gold ornaments of the guards. Another, with paintings by Prevost, of Francis I. at the Château d'Anet, Louis XIV. at Versailles, and the present Emperor and Empress at the Bois de Boulogne, was presented by the same gracious lady to the Viscountess Aguardo, one of her Dames d'Honneur; as were likewise two others, of great beauty, to Princess Metternich. The Countess Granville's fan, presented to her ladyship by the Foreign Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1867, is rich with its paintings on silk by Hamon, and its carvings in ivory by Rambert. One of the fans was that which was made in 1837 for the VOL. XVIII.-NO. CIII.

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marriage of the Duchess d'Orleans, and now belongs to her god-daughter the Comtesse de Paris; as is likewise the fan made by Duvelleroy for the marriage of the last-named royal lady in 1864. Rather a curious work of art is a fan belonging to the Prince of Wales, delicately painted in Russia by an Hungarian artist, and presenting an allegorical painting of the Return of the Prince from Russia after the Marriage of his Sister-in-law, the Princess Dagmar of Denmark, to the Czarewitch; the manner in which about twenty little Cupids are busying themselves with adieus and regrets - some carrying the 'Ich Dien,' and others the Prince of Wales's plume of feathers-is certainly fanciful. fan that once belonged to Madame la Marquise de Pompadour, but is now the property of Madame Achille Jubinal, is marvellously cut in paper in imitation of lace: so fine that it is difficult to conceive what kind of cutting instruments were employed in the fabrication. An English fan of the time of Charles I. was presented in 1696 by the Princess Anne, afterwards Queen of England, to a young lady on her marriage with a country squire. A fan belonging eighty years ago to Marie Antoinette has had her cipher removed from it, and another cipher placed on the shield. An early German fan, once belonging to the collection at Gotha, was presented by the late Prince Consort to the Queen; as was also a dress fan of modern French production. Here

is a fan which was made for the corbeille of the Duchess d'Orleans, and which was presented by the Comte de Paris to our Princess Helena on her marriage with Prince Christian; and here a fan presented to Queen Victoria by the Queen of Prussia in 1852, with paintings of seven royal residences in the two countries; and here one which passed successively into the hands of three queens-Marie Antoinette, the Queen of the Belgians, and Queen Victoria; and here an Italian fan of the last century, which belonged to Queen Charlotte, then to the Duchess of Bedford, by whom (when lady of the bedchamber

was presented to the present Queen. Other fans presented to her Majesty, and more or less attractive in character, are those given by the Duke of Coburg and the Duchess of Gordon, a third that belonged to the late Princess Charlotte, and a fourth once owned by Queen Adelaide. A fan, painted on chickenskin in the Pompeian style, was the one which the Princess Charlotte presented in 1809 to her governess, the Countess of Elgin, A Dutch fan, nearly two hundred years old, is supposed to have been designed to commemorate the marriage of William of Orange with Mary of England; it belonged to a distinguished family in Holland, partisans of the Orange cause. One, skilfully painted on kid, belonged to Benjamin West; while another, painted on chicken-skin, belonged to Sir Joshua Reynolds, by whom it was given to his niece, the Marchioness of Thomond. Our distinguished painters would gladly possess fans on which the pencils of Watteau or Gavarni had been exercised-irrespective of all other attractions.

The éventaillistes, or fan manufacturers, of France carry on their trade with a good deal of organisation and system. Twenty different operations, performed by as many pairs of hands, are necessary for the production of even a halfpenny French fan; and for the costly productions of high finish, the number of subdivisions is of course far larger. The éventaillistes themselves-the Duvelleroys, Alexandres, Fayets, Chardins-are, in fact, only the makers-up or finishers; they purchase the various parts of the fans in various districts of France, and employ persons to put them together or build them up. There are, it appears, four distinct branches of trade, associated with different component parts of a fan; and no fan, whether humble or luxurious, is complete until all these branches have contributed their aid. So economical are the materials and manufacture of some fans, that even Duvelleroy would take an order for such at the price of fivepence per dozen; while at the other extreme are fans in which the mother-of

pearl sticks contain no less than sixteen hundred distinct holes, each worked with a saw, in a square inch!

Let us take a bird's-eye glance at the mode of conducting the manufacture. The French give the name of pied to the solid or firm parts of a fan, and that of feuille to the flexible or folding part. The pied is subdivided into the brins or inner ribs, and panaches or outer ribs. The frame or pied is made of any one among a large variety of materials-ebony, plum-wood, sandalwood, lime-tree, bone, ivory, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, &c., cheap or costly according to the quality of the fan. The materials for the ribs are brought into shape by sawing, filing, polishing, piercing, carving, gilding, and other decorative processes; the spangles and pins of gold, silver, and steel are affixed; and the several ribs are riveted to a joint at the end of the handle, where a gem or precious stone often adorns the more costly specimens. There is much scope for the display of taste in putting the ribs together: seeing that the panaches, being thicker and more openly displayed than the brins, afford a greater field for elaborate ornamentation. The feuille is made of a larger variety of substances than the frame. It may be of silk, satin, painted or stained paper, printed or embossed paper, gilt or silvered paper, parchment, lamb's skin, kid, chicken skin, lace, tulle, gauze, crêpe, vellum, tambour-work, gold or silver tissue, peacocks' or pheasants' feathers, &c. A very frequent kind is, paper on one side and silk on the other. Artists of every degree of skill in watercolours are employed in painting the feuilles; where cheapness is not studied, there the Watteaus and Bouchers, the Roqueplans and Gavarnis, the Boulangers and Duprés, and many other names of note, may be met with; while, at the other end of the scale, children who can merely dab a few bits of bright colour on a fan meet with ready employment. Pictures printed from copper-plates, and coloured by hand, form the feuilles of vast numbers of fans; as