Cockade fans, also known as “
Chinois” fans, were the pinnacle of the fan-makers art and were considered quite the luxurious novelty. Cockade fans—with a full circle of stiffened silk pleats as opposed to the typical lunette fan-shape—were typically fashioned in two styles: Retractable and Rigid. With the retractable variants, when the owner tugged on the tassel at the end of the fan, the silk leaf would fold and retract into itself, leaving only the silk-covered tube to be tucked into a pocketbook. The rigid fans always stayed open and also serves as a face screen to protect a lady’s face (and make-up) from the heat of the fire.
This retractable cockade fan was created in 1880 by a French maker for Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A patroness of the arts and herself a talented painter, Princess Louise had a great passion for hand fans and collected many throughout her lifetime, even loaning seven fans from her collection to the first “Competetive Exhibition” of the English Fan-makers Company.
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