Fan Fashions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue III, 21 July 1894, Page 52

Fan Fashions.

BY

MARY CALDWELL MONTGOMERY.

IT is strange that the fan, which is mainly esteemed as an article of feminine adornment, should have come to be rated, in commercial phrase, as a 1 piece of furniture.’ For the sake merely of its ancient fame, and the picture it conjures of church ceremonial or royal pageant, it seems a pity to degrade it to the level of chairs, tables, and stools. Still, the term has crept into use for natural reasons. In the first place because it is the parent of the screen ; and the screen illustrates best the fan principle as applied to a ‘ piece ’ which ‘ furnishes.’ In the second, because, along with many greater things,

it has joined the rank of effective ‘ stage properties.’ Indeed, we may believe that these standards of rich plumage were present when the Queen of Sheba paid homage to Solomon, since from the very earliest days they have canopied oriental royalty ; and after all, if a chair be a throne, why may not a fan be ‘ furniture ’ ’ It proves, on the whole, more pleasant, perhaps, to accept this trinket in its lighter aspect, linked as it is, in every man’s mind, with famous tales of gallantry, of prowess, and of love. ALL AGES HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO ITS HISTORY, all countries to its substance. It has been a pet vehicle for artistic expression and has proved more protean than any of the minor art forms which have drifted to us from traditionary periods. Like everything else it has its pedigree. * If a thorn were the first needle, no doubt a palm leaf was the first fan.’ Possibly cave dwellers or lake dwellers may have contrived some simple device. But we must turn to Chinese antiquity, to the oldest civilisation which is known to the world, for the original concept of the fan as an article of personal use, from which legendary maze floats a story ascribing the invention to a woman’s caprice. ORIGIN OF THE FAN. Lam-si, the tale runs, lovely daughter of an all-powerful mandarin of the Flowery Kingdom, was bidden to an imperial fete, which she attended masked, conformably to court etiquette of her day. Becoming intolerably heated, she tore her mask from her face in defiance of custom, and fanned herself with it vigorously. She was so beautiful and so exalted in rank that her offence was pardoned, and her example followed by others. Thus the hand fan had its birth and was universally adopted by both sexes. This primitive fan was rather small, nearly square, with a handle eight or ten inches long, and an elaborate cord and tassel. It was called a ‘pankah,’ and undoubtedly bequeathed its name to the Indian punkah. Whatever was practised in the way of art was profusely lavished upon these fans. Composed of the richest materials throughout, they became THE SPECIAL PROPERTY OF THE WEALTHY CLASSES. Some were composed of rare feathers overlapping in a fine mosaic or decorated with the exquisite Chinese diaper ; others of gauze covered with wonderful silk embroideries ; some of sandal-wood and mother of pearl, with handles of jade or amber incrusted with precious stones. All that the metal workers, textile weavers, painters, designers, or jewellers of the day could contrive was expended on this

suspended like drops or pierced like beads. Just HOW AND WHEN THE FAN STRAYED INTO EGYPT, whether with merchant or pilgrim, over desert or over sea, has not been clearly stated. Shakespeare,who has extolled Egypt’s sovereign coquette in a pen picture as immortal as her beauty, contributes incidentally to the story of the fan in the familiar lines:— ‘ The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, Burn’d on the water: the poop was beaten gold Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were love-sick withthem; the oars were silver. Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water, which they beat, to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person. It beggar’d all description : she did lie In her pavilion (cloth-of-gold of tissue), O’er picturing that Venus, where we see, The fancy out-work nature : on each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid, id.’

One may feel, perhaps, more in touch with the scene for learning that the * rare Egyptian’s ’ favourite fan was plucked from the breast of the sacred ibis, and perfumed delicately with orris. From Egypt on to Greece, where a fan of gaudy peacock feathers, originating in Asia Minor, became the choice of Grecian women. There is spoken of, besides, a natural fan of myrtle leaves which suggests Arcadia, and the Greeks made it a custom to bear standard fans in celebrating the festival of Bacchus. Their generals also wore small fans in battle as talismans inducing victory. After Greece, the fan made appearance in Italy, where it maintained its vogue for a protracted period, finally vanishing from Europe with the last of the Ciesars.

IT NEVER LOST CASTE ; IT WAS EVERYWHERE A LUXURY, receiving fresh treatment and enrichment. A portion of its chronicle survives in Etrnscan vase drawings ; paintings unearthed at Herculaneum attest its usage in southern Italy ; and both Virgil and Ovid refer to it. After a prolonged absence, the fan reappeared in Europe with the Crusaders, who brought it in the shape of a small screen-like article, from the lands of the Saracen. This trinket, infinitely modified, has ever since retained its place in the Occident. England, we may be sure, did no escape the invasion, with a monarch who married as many wives as Henry VIII. Some one of them fostered a taste which the royal Blue-beard himself praised, for THE FAN THEN CAME TO BE AN INDISPENSABLE ADJUNCT OF THE COURT DRESS of British ladies of rank. Vain Queen Elizabeth showed herself most partial to it,

and declared it the only seemly gift a sovereign could accept from a subject. Whether she acquired her own in this way or not, not less than twenty seven fans were enumerated among her personal effects at her death. Many of the

INNOVATIONS Of TONE, COLOUR, AND DESIGN remarked during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are plainly attributable to the influx of Chinese models—an influence which bred a distinct change in the style of decoration and a great improvement in the carving of the stick after the eastern manner. Louis XV. welcomed the Mongolian methods rapturously, so that Chinese patterns and motives spread over all the arts, affecting the preparation even of some of the most transparent and wonderful porcelains which then issued

FAN PAINTINGS, FRENCH. from the royal factory at Sevres, and on account of his bountiful encouragement of the fine arts in alliance with the adornment of the fan, the name of Louis XV. has been oftener linked to its frivolous history than that of any other royal or renowned patron. Great painters soon lent a hand in the ornamentation of fans ; marvellous laces decorated the mounts, or miniatures and medallions of extraordinary worth. THE FAN, IN TRUTH, GREW INTO AN OBJECT OF ART, and became the repository of a species of skilled labour which still astounds us. Louis XV. made personal use of the fan like any beauty and considered it an essential feature of dress ; in which respect he has been closely imitated by a monarch of our own time, whose vagaries have entertained the people of two hemispheres—mad, self-murdered King Louis of Bavaria, whose overweening admiration of the French Renaissance was as vital an influence in his life as his passionate devotion to Richard Wagner's music. Being a king he indulged his caprices. He transformed his palaces, where a rococo exuberance rioted over bis walls and ceilings. He gave regal banquets, which from his individual costume to the minutest details of table service and the garb of bis attendants, were faithful copies of similar festivities at Versailles. And he, too, freely used the fan and considered it an ornament to hie person.

A PRICKLESS FAN. Madame Christine Nilsson has purchased a lace-like priceless object, formerly Madame dn Barry’s; and a bauble manufactured for La Pompadour in the height of her triumph reached the summit of reckless expenditure. It is still in existence, broken and apart. Nine years were required for its completion, at

A COST OF £6,030. This wonder of dexterous elaboration eonsisted of paper marvellously cut to imitate fine lace. The decorations included a number of large and small hand painted medallions, which can only be appreciated with the aid of a microscope. MODERN FANS. Three or four fans now seen are modifications of the Louis XV. styles; a little more simple perhaps, with mounts of gossamer crepes, in pale tones, and the satin, silk, and chicken skin of established position. One or two rococo patterns are very fascinating, with cherubic Loves entangled in festoons of roses. One distinctly new feature marks the extension of some of the blades, burnished, carved, and engraved like the rest of the stick, over the surface of the front to the upper line of the mount. These blades divide the space without seeming to interrupt the drawing. THE FANCY FEATHER FAN HAS HAD ITS DAY, only one pattern remaining in favour, and that is perennial in its appearance and steady in price. This is, namely, the plain large fan of ostrich plumes and tortoise, ivory or mother-of-pearl stick, always rich, airy, and agreeable, falling open to the full half circle. If other feather designs are requested, they are made fresh to order, to avoid the crush of packing.