Nothing that woman uses in the great art of pleasing can, however, be considered simple; do you doubt this fact? asks Charles Blanc, speaking of the modern collective mercantile system, rather than that of the artist, who begins his work and carries it to completion with his own hands. ‘No less than fifteen or twenty persons are employed in the making of a fan, which passes through three series of operations—1st, the work of the stick, in which are employed the cutter, the carver, the polisher, the gilder, the inlayer, the riveter, and sometimes the jewel setter, who inserts the precious stones; 2nd, the leaf, which requires the designer, painter, or printer as the case may be; 3rd, the work altogether, employing the gluer, and in the case of spangled or embroidered fans, the embroiderer or sempstress, and the folder or pleater.’ Finally, as in fitting, the last finishing touches—the tassels, tufts, and marabouts are added by the deft hand of a woman, and to quote again Charles Blanc, ‘when this formidable weapon of coquetry is completed, it is enclosed in a case, like a well-tempered blade in its sheath.’[91] The most distinctive Italian mounts are those in which the whole field is occupied by subjects, usually from classic mythology. These are either direct replicas or rearrangements of the works of the later Italian masters—Giulio Romano, the Carracci, Guido, Guercino, as well as those French artists who either worked in Italy, or whose works found their way to that country, as Poussin, who spent the greater part of his life in Rome, Le Brun, and others. In these the chief interest centres in the mount, which is usually deep, and generally of skin, but occasionally of paper. The painting is in pure water-colour and also in gouache. In many instances these leaves have never been mounted; in others, the mount has been removed from the stick, and framed as a picture. None can with any measure of certainty be traced to a master-hand, although a fan appeared at the exhibition held in Drapers’ Hall (1878), which is declared to be by Pietro da Cortona (Berrettini), 1596-1667, and said to have belonged to the Marquise de Pompadour. One of the earliest of these fan-mounts is in the possession of Mr. J. G. Rosenberg of Karlsruhe; the subject Orpheus and Iphigenia, the date about 1670. In the Jubinal collection is a Rape of the Sabines, an original design by F. Romanelli, who was employed by Louis XIV. on the frescoes in the Bibliothèque Mazarine.