In the art library, Victoria and Albert Museum, is a small collection of designs for fans, acquired from the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and typical of the work done during the middle of the century; the fans from these designs being made, in each instance, by Alexandre. Amongst these is a silk leaf representing the four ages of Infancy, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age, forming one group in a large cartouche, occupying three-fourths of the entire space, extremely ably painted, somewhat recalling the style of the French painter Flandrin; the colour scheme being a monotone of mauve with gold embellishments, the panel on a green ground with lightly designed ornaments, signed F. Fossey, MDCCCLXIII. A group of Watteau figures dancing, cleverly touched on a light buff silk mount, and a shepherd piping, with shepherdess and Cupid, a circle of Cupids hovering round a tree, also in the Watteau style, are examples of the lighter and daintier style of mount affected by the French artists of this epoch; the last named signed by Madame Callamatta. Madame Bisschop, who also has a dainty touch, executed a number of fans during the sixties and seventies, including the silver-wedding fan of Mr. and Lady Charlotte Schreiber. This skin mount, now in the Schreiber collection, British Museum, though it can scarcely lay claim to the highest qualities, is, nevertheless, charming in idea and pretty in colour; it represents a sylvan scene on the borders of a lake upon which are two white swans, a delicate allusion to the bride and bridegroom. In the centre, underneath a tree, is a Cupid turning over the pages of a large book, inscribed ‘April 10, 1880, XXV.’ The subject is enclosed within a cartouche of gold and flowers. Once again, the Royal Fan, in its hour of need, finds a friend in royalty, on this occasion the most powerful monarch in Europe, Queen Victoria. In 1870, the period of perhaps the lowest ebb of the fan’s fortunes in this country, at the initiative of this royal lady, an exhibition was organised at the South Kensington Museum (now Victoria and Albert), when a prize of £400 was offered by Her Majesty, and four hundred and thirteen examples from the finest collections both here and abroad were shown. The great success of this exhibition, and the absorbing interest displayed in it, naturally led to the organisation of others. Among the measures adopted by the Worshipful Company of Fanmakers for the purpose of reviving what was at one time ‘a flourishing industry in this ancient city,’ a competitive exhibition of fans was held at Drapers’ Hall in 1878, again under the protecting ægis of royalty (H.R.H. Princess Louise, now Duchess of Argyll). Twelve hundred and eighty-four fans, ancient and modern, were exhibited; gold, silver, and bronze medals, and money prizes amounting in the aggregate to £172 were awarded, the freedom of the Company being in most instances granted to the prize-winners.