‘A writer in the _Westminster Journal_ for February 23, 1751 (quoted by the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for the same year), proposes a tax upon plain and printed fan mounts. Painted ones not coloured to pass free as before. A sixpenny stamp to be affixed in the midst of a plain or printed paper fan mount, and a shilling stamp on a leather one. This may produce a revenue of ten, twenty, or thirty thousand pounds per annum, encourage a very ingenious branch of business, and only hurt about half-a-dozen paultry plate printers, who are enriching themselves and starving of hundreds.’ [Illustration: English Fan, ivory, finely painted with medallions in the style of Cosway Wyatt Coll^n. V. & A. Museum.] The _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for November 1752 quotes an advertisement which appeared in the _Daily Advertiser_, ‘from the poor unfortunate artificers in the several branches of the fan trade, whose number is nearly 1000; returning thanks to the Company of Fanmakers for petitioning the E. India directors to discontinue the importation of fans. To excite the regard and compassion of the ladies, it asserts that the home-made fans are in every way preferable to foreign; and that by discouraging the latter, they will relieve a number of unfortunate families from the most grievous distress and despair.’[122] ‘On the 7th February’ (_Gentleman’s Magazine_, March 1753), ‘the journeymen fanmakers presented the Princess Dowager of Wales with a beautiful and elegant fan, far superior to Indian fans, which was most graciously received.’ This, doubtless, with the idea of obtaining patronage and support for the home-made article. The imported fans were for the most part sold by tea-merchants and dealers in Oriental wares. A trade card in the Schreiber collection, British Museum, with an elaborate engraved portrait of Queen Anne, states that John Roberts at the Queen’s Head in Holborn, near Hatton Garden, London, sells all sorts of Fine China Ware; the finest Hyson and Congo Teas, Fine Double Flint Drinking Glasses, etc., _and India Fans_. The fan _makers_ also often combined the trade of fanmaking with the sale of millinery and stationery. The Banks collection of Shop Bills includes the following trade card:— ‘Robert Pickeard, at the Swan and Golden Fan in Cheapside, near the Conduit, London. ‘Mounteth and Maketh all sorts of Fans, and Selleth Silk Gauze and Silver Handkerchiefs, Caps, Girdles, Ribbons, Roles, Wiers, Ferrits, Silver Lace for Shoes, white Buttons for Shirts, Silk and Ferrit Laces, Masks and Necklaces. ‘_N.B._—Any Merchant may be furnished with all kinds of Milenary Wares at Cheap Rates.’ Also we find Honour Chassereau, Fan Maker and Stationer, Fan and Crown, Long Acre, London, ‘selling all sorts of Stationery Wares, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation.’ The principal enactments for the regulation of the import trade in fans and materials of the fan are here enumerated:—