If you are a beginner in fan knowledge, we hope you shall learn something here, and get some pleasure. If you are a "connoisseur", sure you shall find some fan or english mistakes : please tell us ! You can have a look at our "Place de l'Eventail pavement', where you will find details from a choice of our fans. Then, come back to these "rudiments", or browse elsewhere on the site. You can also open a folder we have opened on the Amsterdam Rijskmuseum website, in order to see grat masters paintings showing fans: Riskmuseum folder.
Above a detail of a fan... We renew it according to our mood, "sans rime ni raison, pour le plaisir des yeux" !
A good introduction article has been given 10 2017 by a member of FANA (Fan Association of North America).
http://journalofantiques.com/2017/features/fans-and-fashion/
A good presentation was also given by Georgina-Letourmy Bordier, Ph.D. in History of Art and hand fans expert,
for the Institut Français de la Mode (Paris) in March 2016.
"Une histoire de l'éventail"
You can hear it (in French) and see illustrations here:
http://www.ifm-paris.com/fr/actualite/item/96447-une-histoire-de-leventail-.html
Another presentation by Georgina Letourmy (in French too) can be found here:
https://youtu.be/Tj_bOPMUsqc
"Natural" fan
I It's doubtless that Man and Woman used first natural elements for cooling, chasing insects, fanning fire or protecting against heat . After, he/she ingeniously decorated, trnasformed or reproduced these items. Here is a bone indonesian fan, carved with a god.
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Rigid fan
After having taken what Nature gave him, and having transformed palms, bones etc., Man created fanning objects, which at first where rigid, and generally called screens or flags (when so shaped). Here is an example (XXth century) from Indonesia, with buffalo horn and skin.
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Feathers fan
It's quite sure that seing birds moving their wings helped our ancestors to imagine fixed or (later) folding feathers fans. There was one in Tut Ank Amon grave, not very differnt from the fan you see on this advertising card (ca 1910)
étage au dessus
Jenny Lind fan
Having seen wings and feathers fans... somebody one day thought about this kind of fan... (here an ad fan for "Pavillon Royal" restaurant, in Paris Bois de Boulogne, which is of the "Palmettes" (or "Jenny Lind" ?) kind, and "découpé", i.e. pierced of a lot of small holes, reproducing some lace, as some XVIIIth century fans did.
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Brisé fan
From palms or feathers, connected together by their basis, the logical evolution towards a fan made of various solid material plates is easy to imagine. This type of fan may be encountered at various times and in various places. This one has ivory painted and pierced sticks, dates from the beginning of XVIIIth century, is undoubtedly French, and alas has somewhat underwent the ravages of time.
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Folding fan
The folded fan is the most widespread shape of the fan. Although certain brisé fans appear among most beautiful (and most expensive), the folded fan represents, by its complexity of execution, the diversity of its materials and the number of different workers involved, the large variety of its sizes, presentations, manufacturing processes, the typical fan. This is the kind of fan that spontaneously most people imagine, as well in Occident as in Far East. This one, realized in France at the beginning of the century, represents Sarah Bernhardt in " L'Aiglon" ("the Eaglet ") (by Edmond Rostand)
Fan parts
panache : guard bout : ribs feuille : leaf gorge tête : head bélière : loop brins : sticks rivure : rivet
Fan materials
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The fan needs, in its manufacture, an infinity of various materials, which are sometimes difficult to recognize. We shall quote here only the principal ones - for mounting :
- for the leaf :
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Cockade fan
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