Unfolding Pictures: The Reading Fan, 1870

The Reading Fan
The Royal Collection

One of the few things that Queen Mary could discuss with her mother-in-law, Queen Alexandra, was their mutual love of collecting, especially fans and enamel items. Many of Alexandra’s fans were bequeathed to Queen Mary after Alexandra’s passing. This is one of them.


According to the curators of The Royal Collection, “This fan was presented to the Princess of Wales (later, Queen Alexandra) on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of Reading School by the Prince of Wales on 1 July 1870 (the date inscribed on the verso). The new school, built to the designs of Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905), replaced that founded by Henry VII and was erected under the terms of the Reading School Act passed in 1867.”

Instead of reading the address to the assembly it was handed to the Princess Alexandra in a very novel form. It was reduced by photography, and appended to a paper leaf fan mounted in mother of pearl, delicately carved, and mounted with gold. A matching gold vinaigrette accompanied the gift of the fan.

The fan leaf is adorned in the center with two intertwined “A’s” surmounted by the Prince of Wales’s coronet. At either side of the leaf are views of Reading School and Reading Abbey, with the arms of Reading and of the Princess of Wales.

Queen Mary saw to it that this fan and the original box were preserved in the Royal Collection, however, the matching vinaigrette and a duplicate of the fan in miniature have been lost.