Unfolding Pictures: A Baton Fan with Blackamoor Finials, 1750

Baton Fan with Blackamoor Finials
French Leaf with German Stick and Guards, 1750
Given to Queen Victoria from Prince Albert, 1840
This an all images:
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Just before their marriage, Prince Albert presented Queen Victoria with four antique fans from the collection of his family. His grandfather, Duke Augustus of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, had amassed a remarkable collection of fans with the help of German dealer, Joseph Meyer. The queen was so pleased with the gift that she made a note in her diary that her beloved had given her “Four beautiful old fans.”



Of the four, one is especially interesting. This unusual fan is called a “baton fan” because, when closed, it takes on a cylindrical shape as opposed to the flatter shape of most fans. The sticks and guards are German in origin. 

Created in 1750, the fan guards end in delicately carved, Moorish-inspred, figural heads—each with carefully pierced ears from which gold earrings hang. The fan leaf was painted in France and depicts a romantic, courting scene which the prince found especially appropriate for the occasion.  The reverse depicts a landscape scene of a folly upon a lake.

On February 9, 1840, upon receiving these gifts, and a few others, Queen Victoria recorded her enthusiasm in her journal.  And, look!  Thanks to the very agreeable people at the Royal Collection, I've a photo of the very page upon which Her Majesty wrote of this fan, over one hundred sixty years ago!  Wonderful!

Unfolding Pictures: A Baton Fan with Blackamoor Finials, 1750

Baton Fan with Blackamoor Finials
French Leaf with German Stick and Guards, 1750
Given to Queen Victoria from Prince Albert, 1840
This an all images:
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Just before their marriage, Prince Albert presented Queen Victoria with four antique fans from the collection of his family. His grandfather, Duke Augustus of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, had amassed a remarkable collection of fans with the help of German dealer, Joseph Meyer. The queen was so pleased with the gift that she made a note in her diary that her beloved had given her “Four beautiful old fans.”



Of the four, one is especially interesting. This unusual fan is called a “baton fan” because, when closed, it takes on a cylindrical shape as opposed to the flatter shape of most fans. The sticks and guards are German in origin. 

Created in 1750, the fan guards end in delicately carved, Moorish-inspred, figural heads—each with carefully pierced ears from which gold earrings hang. The fan leaf was painted in France and depicts a romantic, courting scene which the prince found especially appropriate for the occasion.  The reverse depicts a landscape scene of a folly upon a lake.

On February 9, 1840, upon receiving these gifts, and a few others, Queen Victoria recorded her enthusiasm in her journal.  And, look!  Thanks to the very agreeable people at the Royal Collection, I've a photo of the very page upon which Her Majesty wrote of this fan, over one hundred sixty years ago!  Wonderful!

Unfolding Pictures: The Great Exhibition Fan, 1851

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Souvenir Fan from the Great Exhibition
England, 1851
This and all related images from:
The Victoria and Albert Museum

Created in England in 1851, this fan of hand-colored, printed paper and pierced bone sticks and guards inlaid with silver, commemorates the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations of 1851—a.k.a. Prince Albert big “Look What We Can Do” festival at Joseph Paxton’s ‘Crystal Palace’ in Hyde Park in London.

Fans were not only a major part of the exhibition, but they were also available for sale as souvenirs. This fan was made as a souvenir, but a high-end souvenir. Versions were also made without the silver inlay and with less-expensive wooden sticks and guards.

The reverse of the fan is printed in gilt with vignettes of female silhouettes between various coats-of-arms. The obverse features, in the center, a façade of the Crystal Palace flanked by the flags of participating nations.

Prince Albert, in all of his Coburg cleverness, saw to it that the proceeds of the Great Exhibition were used to purchase a large plot of land which would allow the building of the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A. Furthermore, a large portion of the winning entries in the exhibits were purchased for display in this proposed museum. So, without the Great Exhibition, we’d have no Victoria & Albert Museum. 

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Unfolding Pictures: The Venus Interceding with Jupiter Fan, 1730-1769

Venus Interceding with Jupiter Fan
French, 1730-1769
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Many Eighteenth Century fans were inspired by stories from Classical mythology. Here’s a great example. Known as the “Venus Interceding with Jupiter” Fan, it was made in France between 1730 and 1769. The leaf of the fan shows the high standards for fan-painting as well as serves as an excellent example of French Baroque painting. The hallmarks of Baroque painting—theatricality, intense and brilliant colors and unnaturally exaggerated lighting—are all clearly evident in this delicately painted scene. A Chinoiserie scene—also fashionable at the time—graces the reverse of the fan. 

The fan’s sticks and guards, also, are indicative or Baroque style with their intricate carving and piercing, painted cartouches and inlays of mother-of-pearl. 

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