[Illustration: Wedding Fan, silk leaf, painted with medallions, spangled ornaments. Ivory stick richly carved, with subject of the Alter of Hymen &c. The Countess of Bradford.] [Illustration: Wedding Fan, satin mount, painted with medallions, spangled, ivory stick, finely carved with marriage emblems &c., ivory miniatures on guards, French, c. 1780. Lady Lindsay.] The fêtes given on the occasion of the marriage of the young dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI., with Marie-Antoinette, are recorded on a fan in the Wyatt collection, in the centre of which are shown the illuminations with fireworks, a scroll inscribed, ‘Vive la France, l’empire, et tous leurs alliés à jamais’; above is inscribed, ‘Feu d’artifice de Mr. L’ambassadeur Exécuté le 10 Juin 1770 par le Sr. Torre Artificier du Roi.’ On the left is a street scene with a band of musicians and spectators; on the right, four figures viewing the illuminations. A cartouche on the right is inscribed, ‘Fêtes Publiques à l’occasion du mariage de Mr. le Dauphin.’ The mount is of paper, the stick and guards ivory, pierced gilt, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. (Illustrated facing p. 180.) An allegory of this marriage appears as the subject of a fan that formed part of an important collection of a deceased Parisian lady, Madame X., sold at the Hôtel Drouot, April 1897. In this the stick is mother-of-pearl, carved with reliefs, gilt, and the arms of France and Austria. The leaf is in gouache on skin, with medallions of the royal pair, alternated with others emblematic of the Fine Arts. Another bridal-fan of Marie-Antoinette has on the obverse an allegorical composition, in which the dauphine, enthroned upon a cloud, is about to sign the marriage contract which Cupid lays before her, while Hymen hovers above: on the left, the Graces weave garlands of roses; on the right, Midas and Discordia are banished to the regions of obscurity. On the reverse, Louis and his young bride appear walking in a wood, guided by Cupid, blind, and bearing a torch. Both these subjects have been attributed to Fragonard; they are, however, most certainly by two different hands. The stick is mother-of-pearl, carved _à jour_, with figures of the royal couple, cupids, and other appropriate emblems. The custom of presenting fans on the occasion of a wedding was universal, and surely no more acceptable offering than a fan could be made to a bride. The fine fan, illustrated by the kindness of the Countess of Bradford, is typical of a whole class of fans produced during the latter years of the reign of Louis XVI., having silk mounts, with painted medallions, usually one superior, and the other inferior; the borders and intervening spaces decorated with spangles of gold, silver, and colours; the sticks either broad and ornate as in the example given, or narrow; the ornamentation being of a more reticent character.