Regency Trivia – Fans

 

I went down a rabbit hole doing some research today and found a site on Georgian and Regency fans. Most authors mention fans in their books, so I thought I’d show you what some of the fans you might read about look like.

The first image is of a brisé fan. It date from 1810-1820. Note how delicately carved the bone sticks are. The main part of the fan is silk and is hand painted.

The second fan dates to between 1780 – 1790. The fan is made of carved and pierced ivory sticks and a hand painted vellum (swanskin) leaf. The sticks show flowers, flaming hearts and doves. The front leaf is hand painted with a central scene of a courting couple in a country house garden. Because of the image, it’s called a courting fan. She is “fishing” for a husband and he is trying to lead her astray into the garden! The reserves show a vase and the altar of Hymen including two doves and a dog, surrounded by garlands of flowers. The reverse is hand painted with a small group of fruit.

 

1815-1830 French Dance Fan. The second fan is also a brisé fan. It is made of bone guardsticks and inner cardboard sticks are connected via a silk ribbon. The inner sticks are covered with a thick plaster like white paint on the front and back and the edges of the front of the fan is hand painted with highly stylized foliage and flowers. The center and back were left undecorated, because the fan would have come with a small bejeweled stylus (encased within the left guardstick) with which the owner was able to write down her dance partners on the inner sticks of the fan.

#RegencyTrivia #Regency #ReadaRegency #HistoricalFiction

Advertisement