History of the FanRhead, G. Woolliscroft (George Woolliscroft)
History
History of the Fan
Rhead, G. Woolliscroft (George Woolliscroft)
Fans
An extremely interesting type of mount has a large vignette, usually of
two figures, occupying the centre, or the whole field of the fan. In
these fans the sticks are of carved ivory, often strongly reminiscent
of Chinese design, or having costume figures of the character with
which we are familiar in early woodcuts. Two examples in the Wyatt
collection represent pastoral groups, extremely good in style, the
colour scheme being most effective.
[Illustration: Dutch Fan, Ivory stick, carved, painted, & gilt. Mrs
Davies-Gilbert.]
[Illustration: Dutch Fan, ‘Pagoda’ stick, applied straw work on leaf.
Mr L. C. R. Messel.]
In the treatment of the mount the Dutch invariably followed the
practice of Italy and France. Many were painted in the Chinese taste,
some in imitation of the finer fans of China. The sticks of these
were usually of pierced ivory. An excellent example in the Wyatt
collection shows in the centre compartment the garden of a Chinese
house, with seated figures and visitors arriving. A panel on the right
represents an astronomer making observations, and on the left is a
fight between men in boats on a river. A capital effect is obtained
in this fan by means of line work in gold, this being particularly
effective over the blue water in the boat scene.
The fan illustrated facing page 198 is interesting from the cut-work
of the mount, an imitation of the cut-work Italian fans of the
seventeenth century; in this instance, the pattern is produced by means
of stamping, done before the leaf is painted. The stick and guards are
extremely effective, and are of ivory, pierced, carved, painted and
gilt.
Flemish fans are often decorated with subjects from Scripture history;
as Jacob and Rachel, Abraham entertaining the three Angels, scenes
from the lives of Elijah, Ruth, and Boaz; these evidently for use at
church. A fine example of the end of the seventeenth century appeared
at the Walker sale in 1882, and passed into the Franks collection. This
is a crowded composition of the passage of the Israelites through the
Red Sea; the stick of plain ivory, the guards carved with figures of
Bellona.
The subject of Rinaldo in the Garden of Armida also occurs on a fan in
the Wyatt collection, the mount chicken skin, the style and colouring
that of the later Roman school of painting. The stick and guards of
ivory, carved with scroll-work and figures, the date about 1700.
Embroidery was also employed. An unusual example, the method scarcely
to be commended on account of the weight, is also in the Wyatt
collection, with a naturalistic landscape and figures, the embroidered
work covering the whole field of the fan, and consequently rendering it
heavy both in appearance and actual weight. The stick and guards are
tortoise-shell, pierced and embossed with gold, probably of a later
date than the mount, which may be put at _c._ 1650.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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