Unfolding Pictures: The Dutch Marriage Fan, 1770

Dutch Marriage Fan
Vellum with Mother-of-Pearl Guards and
Carved Battoire Sticks Featuring Painted Medallions
Created: 1770
Presented to Queen Mary: 1893
The Royal Collection

When we think of antique hand fans, we usually think of those produced in France or England. However, fan-makers in the Netherlands in the Eighteenth Century were producing high quality fans which rivaled those of the French. Dutch fans often had a golden glow about them because of the use of yellow-toned vellum for the leaves. Such is the case of this fan made in Holland in 1770. The vellum leaf is supported by carved sticks and protected by identical mother-of-pearl guards. The fan’s leaf is painted with a mythological scene of Mars falling in love with Venus.


Queen Mary (of Teck) amassed a tremendous collection of antique. Many of them were purchased from auctions, others were given as gifts, and others still came from Mary’s favorite occupation of admiring her friends’ possessions and then waiting for the friend in question to give her the object she admired. This fan, however, came to Mary as a gift on her wedding day to the soon-to-be King George V. It was presented to her in 1893—as a symbol of her love for the Prince—by the Honorable Mrs. Halford.