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| Click image for larger size. 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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| Click image for larger size. |
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