‘The latest craze of Viennese society,’ says the _New York Commercial_, November 23, 1890, ‘is a passion for fans of mountain-cock feathers. The last question the young Austrian belle asks her admirer before he goes on a hunt is, “Won’t you try, please, to bag me a fine fan?” An ideal fan of this kind must contain only feathers from birds brought down by the most expert shots, and every feather must be the lone representative of the giver’s skill; consequently, such a fan may record the admiration and skill of sixty or seventy hunters. It is not unusual to have cut in the ribs of the fans a brief account of the circumstances under which the birds were shot. The German Empress is said to have expressed a wish last summer for such a fan, and ever since that time the young bloods of the Austrian Court, who have already bagged fans for their own women, have been shooting right and left for the Empress’s sake. The handle of the fan, now being completed in Vienna, will be set with jewels in the Prussian colours.’ A more unique example of the spoils of sport is the fan which, by the graciousness of H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, we are enabled to illustrate here. In this, the blades are of red tortoise-shell, twenty in number. The feather portion is composed of a series of tiny feathers from the wing of the woodcock. These, 6520 in number, were supplied by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales from the wings of 3260 woodcocks, there being one only of these miniature feathers in each wing of the bird. Each single feather is fixed with two stitches of thread and worked upon a linen base, the back being formed of the ordinary feathers from the breast and wings. The fan was commenced on the 18th August 1900, and only completed on the 28th October 1901. The lady who worked it was unable to apply herself for more than an hour or so at a time, the work being so excessively fine and tedious. The manufacture of the fan was entrusted to Mr. Alfred Clark, of 33 New Bond Street,[172] the work being carried out under his direction, and, we believe, on a principle of his own. M. Édouard Moreau signed a number of fans from 1860 onwards, characterised by a charming delicacy of execution and elaboration of detail. A representative example is given, which appeared in the International Exhibition of 1862, and was purchased for the South Kensington Museum. This, an ivory brisé, is painted with three medallions of ‘The Tournament,’ ‘Before the Tournament,’ and ‘After the Tournament.’ The fan was made by Alexandre, and bears very favourable comparison with the best work of the eighteenth century. (Facing p. 87.)