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OUVRAGES A GRANDS RABAIS
LOUIS DE MEULENEERB
:leph. 21, Rue du Chene tki.kimi.
m • 7nft3 _ Sablon : 2083
HISTORY OF THE FAN
This edition is limited to 450 copies for sale in Europe and the British Dominions, of which this is JVo.<?J.
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H ISTORY OF
THE FAN
BY G. WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD
R.E.; HON. A.R.C.A. LOND.; AUTHOR OF 'THE PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN'; 'A HANDBOOK OF ETCHING'; 'THE TREAT- MENT OF DRAPERY IN ART'; 'STUDIES IN PLANT FORM' 'CHATS ON COSTUME,' ETC.; JOINT AUTHOR OF 'STAFFORDSHIRE POTS AND POTTERS' 'BRITISH POTTERY MARKS'
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Ltd.
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.
1910
Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
no
E
O
DEDICATED
(BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION)
TO
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS OF WALES
PUBLISHERS NOTE
THE majority of the blocks in this work were made direct from the actual Fans by Messrs. John Swain and Sons, to whom the Publishers are indebted for the skill and ingenuity with which they have overcome the many special difficulties incidental not only to the subjects themselves, but to the conditions under which many of those in private houses had to be reproduced.
The Colour Plates are printed by Messrs. Edmund Evans.
The block of the Fan Mount by Rosa Bonheur was made by Mr. F. Jenkins in Paris.
The block of the Japanese Fan Mount, The Tama- gawa River, is by the Grout Engraving Company.
The lithograph of Bacchus and Ariadne is by Messrs. Martin, Hood and Larkin.
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PREFACE
IT is, perhaps, a little singular that up to the present no work making any pretension to completeness has appeared in English dealing with that little instrument so intimately associated with both civil and religious life of the past, the Fan. Even on the Continent the literature of the Fan is exceedingly scanty. M. Blondel's work, Histoire des Eventails, published in 1875, is but sparsely illus- trated, and is mainly based upon the researches of M. Natalis Rondot, whose Rapport stir les objets de Parure was undertaken at the instance of the French Government in 1854. An English translation of M. Octave Uzanne's brilliant sketch appeared in 1884, and is unillustrated except by fanciful border designs ; while Lady Charlotte Schreiber's stately tomes and Mrs. Salwey's Fans of Japan deal only with more or less isolated portions of the subject. These, together with Der Facher, by Georg Buss, appearing in 1904, one or two illustrated catalogues and a few desultory magazine articles, form the sum-total of the Fan's literature. This paucity of book material, and the general absence of information amongst individuals, is at once an advantage and a dis- advantage. I have in dealing with this subject such benefits as the breaking of new ground gives ; I have at the same time to contend with the difficulty of collecting information from sources so scattered, and in many instances so obscure.
To the works above mentioned, which indeed have been most helpful, it is only justice to add the admirable article on ' Les Disques cruciferes, le Flabellum, et l'Umbella,' in La Revue de TArt Chrdtien, by M. Charles de Linas ; the sparkling and entertaining 'History on Fans' by Henri Bouchot in Art and Letters for 1883 1 an excellent article on Chinese
Fans by H. A. Giles in Frasers Magazine for May 1879; articles in b ix
► M
i
*-.-*
PREFACE
IT is, perhaps, a little singular that up to the present no work making any pretension to completeness has appeared in English dealing with that little instrument so intimately associated with both civil and religious life of the past, the Fan. Even on the Continent the literature of the Fan is exceedingly scanty. M. Blondel's work, Histoire des Eventails, published in 1875, is but sparsely illus- trated, and is mainly based upon the researches of M. Natalis Rondot, whose Rapport stir les objets de Par lire was undertaken at the instance of the French Government in 1854. An English translation of M. Octave Uzanne's brilliant sketch appeared in 1884, and is unillustrated except by fanciful border designs ; while Lady Charlotte Schreiber's stately tomes and Mrs. Salwey's Fans of Japan deal only with more or less isolated portions of the subject. These, together with Der Packer, by Georg Buss, appearing in 1904, one or two illustrated catalogues and a few desultory magazine articles, form the sum-total of the Fan's literature. This paucity of book material, and the general absence of information amongst individuals, is at once an advantage and a dis- advantage. I have in dealing with this subject such benefits as the breaking of new ground gives ; I have at the same time to contend with the difficulty of collecting information from sources so scattered, and in many instances so obscure.
To the works above mentioned, which indeed have been most helpful, it is only justice to add the admirable article on ' Les Disques cruciferes, le Flabellum, et rUmbella,' in La Revue de I Art Ckre'tien, by M. Charles de Linas ; the sparkling and entertaining 'History on Fans' by Henri Bouchot in Art and Letters for 1883 ; an excellent article on Chinese
Fans by H. A. Giles in Preiser's Magazine for May 1879; articles in b ix
HISTORY OF THE FAN
various publications by MM. Paul Mantz and Charles Blanc ; all these I have freely used, and gladly acknowledge my indebtedness.
But, since it is scarcely possible, in a subject covering such an extended area, to avoid inaccuracies of some sort, I must endeavour to forestall any possible criticism by saying that no pains have been spared to render the book as free from errors as may be. As to the line illustrations, they must be considered merely diagrammatic, and not in any sense realistic representations of the various objects.
I welcome this opportunity of making what is an unusually long list of acknowledgments of help received. Firstly, to my Publishers for their enterprise, the admirable manner in which the book is produced, and for their uniform courtesy. Secondly, to the many owners of fans, these including the most exalted personages, who have so generously responded to my invitation to lend their fragile treasures.
My thanks are also due to the officials of the various Museums, those
of the Print Room of the British, and the National Art Library, Victoria
and Albert Museums; to Sir C. Purdon Clarke, C.I.E., F.S.A., and his
son, Mr. Stanley Clarke of the India Museum ; Dr. Peter Jessen of the
Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin ; Professor Pazaurek, Stuttgart ; Dr. Hans
W. Singer ; to Sir George Birdwood, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., who has kindly read
the three chapters on ancient fans ; to Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie,
D.C.L.; Mr. W. Holman Hunt, O.M., R.W.S.; Sir L. Alma-Tadema,
O.M., R.A.; the Rev. J. Foster, D.C.L. ; the Clerk of the Worshipful
Company of Fanmakers ; the Librarian at Welbeck ; Mr. Wilson Crewdson ;
Mr. W. Harding Smith; Mr. W. L. Behrens ; Mr. R. Phene Spiers;
Mr. G. F. Clausen; Mr. J. Ettlinger; Mons. J. Duvelleroy ; Mr. H.
Granville Fell; Mr. Frank Brangwyn, A.R.A.; Mr. Talbot Hughes; Mr.
Frank Falkner, for help in various ways ; and last, though by no means
least, to Mrs. E. P. Medley, for most valuable assistance in translation.
London, 1909. G. WoOLLlSCROFT Rhead.
x
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE ........... ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi"
CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN i
CHAPTER II FANS OF THE ANCIENTS 10
CHAPTER III
FANS OF THE FAR EAST 33
CHAPTER IV FANS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 77
CHAPTER V THE FLABELLUM AND EARLY FEATHER-FAN «7
CHAPTER VI PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES (ITALIAN AND SPANISH) 107
CHAPTER VII
PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES (FRENCH) .138
xi
HISTORY OF THE FAN
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES (ENGLISH, DUTCH, FLEMISH, AND GERMAN) . 176
CHAPTER IX
ENGRAVED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES. FART 1 304
CHAPTER X
ENGRAVED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES. PART II 232
CHAPTER XI MODERN AND PRESENT DAY FANS
272
INDEX
301
PEACOCK.PEATHER I AW
[l Mm it Japanese Painting. British Museum.)
Xll
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
i. RINALDO IN THE GARDEN OF ARMIUA. Louis XV. H.R.H. The Princess of
Wales
Frontispiece
TO FACE TAr.E
I
2. A CONCERT. Dutch. H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
3. LA DANSE, AFTER LANCRET. Dr. Law Adam
4. SEA NYMPHS. Italian. Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P.
5. THE RAPE OF HELEN. 'Vernis Martin.' Lady Lindsay
6. CHINESE FAN. Filigree and Enamel. Mr. M. Tomkinson
7. CHINESE FAN. Red Lacquer. Miss Moss
8. HOTEI AND THE CHILDREN. By KanO-Sho-Yei, 1591. Mr. Wilson Crewdson.
9. THE TAMAGAWA RIVER. By Rang San Raku. Mr. Wilson Crewdson
10. CUT VELLUM FAN. Mr. L. C. R. Messel ....
11. F'AN MOUNT. Bacchus and Ariadne. Mrs. Bruce-Johnston Between pages is
12. PIAZZA OF ST. MARK. Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P.
13. SPANISH FAN PAINTED IN THE CHINESE TASTE. Lady Lindsay
14. PASTORELLE. Spanish. H.S.H. Princess Victor ok Hohenlohe-Langenburg
15. BULL FIGHTS. Spanish. Lady Northcliffe .....
16. PASTORELLE. Louis XV. Wvatt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum
17. MOMENS MUSICALS. 'Vernis Martin.* Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, C.V.O.
18. THE RAPE OF HELEN. 'Vernis Martin.' Lady Northcliffe
19. DIDO AND /ENEAS. Mrs. Bischoffsheim. Facing reverse of same Fan between
pages 162 and 163
20. 'CABRIOLET' FAN. Lady Northcliffe ....... 164
xiii
8 27 3° 46
S3
67
68
107
2 and 123
125 127
■32
134 '38
142
158
HISTORY OF THE FAN
TO FACE TAGE
21. DIRECTOIRE AND EMPIRE FANS. Miss Ethel Travlrs Birdwood, and
Mr. L. C. R. Messel, facing 'Sans Gene' and Empire Fans
Between pages 170 and 171
22. TELEMACHUS AND CALYPSO. The Dowacer Marchioness of Bristol . . 176
23. WEDDING FAN. Directoire. Mr. L. C. R. Messel ..... 188
24. WEDDING FAN. H.R.H. Princess Henrv of Battenberg .... 272
25. LE CERF DE ST. HUBERT. By Rosa Bonhkur. M. Georges Cain . . 280
26. THE RED FAN. Conversations Galantes. By Charles Conder. Mr. John Lane 294
27. THE BLUE FAN. By Frank Brancwyn, A.R.A. ..... 296
ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE
28. LE BAL D'AMOURS. H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll .
29. HOMMAGES OFFERED TO MADAME DE POMPADOUR. Mrs. Bruce-Johnston
30. EGYPTIAN FAN HANDLES. British Museum ....
31. TERRACOTTA STATUETTES. „
32. AN EASTERN POTENTATE TAKING TEA. Mrs. Hungerford Pollen
33. INDIAN FLY-WHISKS AND PEACOCK EMBLEM OF ROYALTY. India Museum
34. LARGE HAND-FAN OK SANDALWOOD. Mrs. Hungerford Pollen
35. FLAG AND PALM-LEAF FANS. India Museum
36. CHINESE FAN. Filigree and Enamel. Victoria and Albert Museum
37. HAND-SCREEN, Front and Reverse. Mr. Wilson Crewdson
38. LACQUERED FAN. Lady Northcliffe ..... CARVED IVORY FAN WITH THE NAME ANGELA. Mr W. Burdett-Couits, M.P
39. CHINESE FAN WITH IVORY MINIATURES. Mr. W. Bukdett-Coutts, M.P.
40. CHINESE FEATHER-FAN (ARGUS PHEASANT) WITH CASE. Victoria and
Albert Museum ........
41. NETSUKI (DAI TENGU). Mr. W. L. Behrens . CAMP-FAN OF EAGLE FEATHERS. Mr. L. C. R. Messel . DAGGER-FAN. Mr. W. L. Behrens .....
42. SUYE HIRO OGI (Wide End) Open and Closed. Mr. W. Harding Smith
43. AKOME OGI (COURT FAN). Mr. Wilson Crewdson . WAR FAN (GUN SEN). Mr. W. Harding Smith
xiv
2
6
U 28
33 38 41 42 48 5° 54 54 56
59 60 60 60
63 64
64
44-
45- 46.
47- 48.
49-
BO- 5*- 53-
54-
55- 56.
57.
58- 59
60,
61
62. 63
64
65.
66.
ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE
Tn FACF I'ACE
FOUR WAR FANS (GUMBAI UCHIWA). Mr. L. C. R. Mf.ssel, Mr. W. Harding Smith, Mr. W. L. Behrens .......
WAR FANS (GUN SEN). Mr. L. C. R. Messel and Mr. W. Harding Smith
MODERN JAPANESE FANS. Ivory with Gilt Lacquer and Painted Fan signed ' Kunihisa.' Mr. M. Tomkinson . ...
THREE CHUKEI. Mr L. C. R. Messki. .....
PALM-LEAF AND HIDE FANS. British Museum ...
PALM FANS, COCKADE INSCRIPTION FAN, FLY-WHISKS (TAHITI), AND NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN FAN. British Museum
69
72
74 76
77
82
87
THE TOURNAMENT. By A. Moreau. Victoria and Aixert Museum FLABELLUM OF TOURNUS. Museo Nazionai.e. Florence i Facing each other
■ ) 11 i> Details J between pages 90 and 91
IVORY FAN AND FLABELLA HANDLES. British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum .......
FAN OF QUEEN THEODOLINDA. Cathedral of Monza
COPTIC FLAG-FANS. Konigl. Museum, Berlin
QUF2EN ANNE FEATHER-SCREEN. Mr. L. C. R. Messel .
DECOUPK FAN. Musee de Cluny ....
FAN OF MICA. Mr. L. C. R. Messel ....
VENUS AND ADONIS. By Leonardo Germo. Wyatt Collection, Albert Museum .......
AN EMBARCATION. Mrs. Hamilton Smythe .
CUPID'S HIVE. The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol
THE TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS. Lady Northcliffe .
BACCHUS AND ARIADNE. Lady Northcliffe
THE MARRIAGE OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. Mr. Frank Falkner
A SACRIFICE. Mrs. Bruce-Johnston.
Facing the Colour Plate of Bacchus and Ariadne . . . Between pages 122 and 123
RINALDO IN THE GARDEN OF ARMIDA. Miss Moss . . . . 129
CAPTURE OF THE BALEARIC ISLANDS. Mr. L. C. R. Messel
BETROTHAL OF LOUIS XVI. WITH MARIE-ANTOINETTE. Mrs. Frank W. Gibson (Eugenie Joachim) .....
SPANGLED FAN. Spanish. Mr. Talbot Hughes
FETE DE I.'AGRICULTURE, 1798. Mr. L. C. R. Messel .
XV
|
92 |
|
|
96 |
|
|
98 |
|
|
102 |
|
|
■ |
109 |
|
1 10 |
|
|
Victoria and |
|
|
114 |
|
|
116 |
|
|
116 |
|
|
. |
118 |
|
118 |
|
|
, |
121 |
129
130 136 136
HISTORY OF THE FAN
67.
68. 69. 7°-
7*-
73- 74-
75- 76
77-
78.
79- 80. 81. 82. 83.
84. 85. 86.
87.
S8.
8»
TO KACK PAGE
LA DANSE, AND PASTORELLE. Duchess of Portland .... 141
PASTORELLE, AFTER LANCRET. H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll . 144
ACTVEON FAN. Muske de Cluny . . . . . . . 146
CEPHALUS AND AURORA. Mrs. Bischoffsheim ..... 14S
VFRNIS MARTIN. Mrs. F. R. Palmer 148
A PASTORELLE, WITH TWO PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS. Wyatt Collection,
Victoria and Albert Museum . . . . . . 15°
THE PARTING OF HELEN AND ANDROMACHE. The Dowacer Marchioness
of Bristol . . . 153
BATTOIR FAN. The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol .... 154
FETE CHAMPfiTRE. ' Vernis Martin.' Wyatt Collection, Victoria and Alefrt
Museum . . . . . . . 156
BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST. Metropolitan Museum, New York . . . . 160
BUILDING OF THE PLACE LOUIS XV. The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol 162
DIDO AND /ENEAS. Reverse. Mrs. Bischoffsheim. Facing the Colour Plate of
same Fan ........ Between pages 162 and 163
'CABRIOLET' FAN. The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol \ Facing each other
„ „ „ „ J between pages 164 and 165
WEDDING FAN. The Countess of Bradford ]
„ „ Lady Lindsay j
STICK OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE FAN. Musee du Louvre .... SANS GENE AND EMPIRE FANS. Mr. L. C. R. Messel. Facing Colour Plate of
Between pages 170 and 17
Facing each other between pages 166 and 167
169
Directoire and Sans Gene Fans
' LORGNETTE ' FANS. Mr. L. C. R. Messel .....
SPANGLED GAUZE FANS. Mr. L. C. R. Messel ....
A LONDON FAN SHOP. Mr. L. C. R. Messel ....
THE SURRENDER OF MALTA. Mrs. Hungerford Pollen .
FETES ON THE OCCASION OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE DAUPHIN. Wyatt
Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum ..... ENGLISH FAN. THE VISIT. Collection of Baroness Meyer de Rothschild ENGLISH FAN WITH MEDALLIONS AFTER COSWAY. Wyatt Collection
Victoria and Albert Museum .......
IVORY EMPIRE FAN. Lady Northcliffe .....
SPANGLED FAN WITH PAINTED MEDALLIONS. Mrs. Frank W. Gibson
xvi
'73 175 '78 178
180 180
182 184 184
ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE
TO FACE PACK
90. WEDDING FAN. Mrs. Hawkins 186
ST. PETER'S, ROME. By J. Goupy. Dr. Law Adam . . . . . 186
91. EARLY DUTCH FAN. The Dowager Marchioness of Bristol . . . 190
92. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. Dutch. Miss Moss -i Facing each other
93. AN EMBARCATION. Dutch. M. J. Duvelleroy J between pages 192 and 193
94. DUTCH FAN WITH HEAD ON STICK. Sir L. Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A.
95. AN OFFERING TO CERES. H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll .
96. DUTCH FAN (DECOUPE). Mrs. Davies-Gilbert .... DUTCH FAN WITH 'PAGODA' STICK. Mr. L. C. R. Messel .
97. MEDALLION FAN. German. Given by H.R.H. The Duke of Coburg to H.R.H
The Princess Victoria, 1836. H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
98. GERMAN FAN. Given by H.R.H. The Prince Consort to Queen Victoria
„ „ Landesgewerbe Museum, Stuttgart ....
99. TWO GERMAN FANS. Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin
100. ENGRAVED HAND-SCREEN. A. Carracci. Schreiber Collection, British Museum
„ „ „ C. F. Horman. „ „ „
101. FETE ON THE ARNO, 'EVENTAIL DE CALLOT.' British Museum
102. GROTESQUE FAN, STYLE OF CALLOT. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
103. THE FOUR AGES. Abraham Bosse ......
104. TITLE-PAGE. Nicholas Loire. Schreiber Collection, British Museum . LA COQUETTE. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ....
105. TAKING OF THE BASTILLE. Schreiber Collection, British Museum . DUC D'ORLEANS. Miss Moss .......
106. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris . 'CABRIOLET' FAN. Schreiber Collection, British Museum
107. NAPOLEON SHOWS HIS TROOPS THE CHANNEL. Bibliotheque Nationale
Paris ..........
108. PROJECTED INVASION OF ENGLAND, 1803. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
109. MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ADVENTURE IN RUSSIA. Schreiber Collection, British Museum
no. A NEW GAME OF PIQUET. Schreiber Collection, British Museum hi. THE MOTION. Schreiber Collection, British Museum
THE NEW NASSAU FAN. Schreiber Collection, British Museum
c xvii
194 196 198 198
200 200 200 202 204 204 206 208 210 212 212 214 214 222 222
224 226 228 228 232 236 236
HISTORY OF THE FAN
TO FA' E PACK
238
112. THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS. Mr. C. Fairfax Murray
113. VISIT OF GEORGE III. TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY. Mr. F. Perigal .
114. MR. THOMAS OSBORNE'S DUCK-HUNTING. Schreiber Collection, British
Museum ..........
115. THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. Mr. VV. Burdett-Coutts, M.P. . THE PARADES OF BATH. Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P. .
116. A TRIP TO GRETNA. Schreiber Collection, British Museum 'BARTOLOZZI' FAN. Mrs. Frank W. Gibson (Eugenie Joachim) .
11;. MISS CHARLOTTE YONGE'S FAN. Miss Moss ....
FAN OF ASSES' SKIN. Miss Moss
118. PAINTED IVORY BRISE FAN. Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, C.V.O.
PORTUGUESE FAN. Mr. J. H. Etherington-Smith ....
LACE MOUNT. Youghal Co-operative Lace Society
AN ENTOMOLOGIST. Countess Granville .....
COCKS AND HENS. Claudius Popelin. Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris
AUTOGRAPH FAN. Sir Lawrence Alma Tadem,\. O.M., R.A. „ „ Japanese. Mr. Frank Brangwvn, A.R.A.
122. LACE FAN PRESENTED TO QUEEN ALEXANDRA FOR USE AT CORONA
TION. Her Majesty the Queen ......
123. FEATHER-FAN. H.R.H. The Princess of Wales ....
124. THE MEET. By Charles Detaille. M. J. Duyelleroy
125. LACE FAN. By Alexandre. Victoria and Albert Museum "1 To face each other
126. LACE FAN. M. J. Duvelleroy . . . . .J between pages 292 and 294
127. DESIGN FOR FAN. By Frank Brangwvn, A.R.A. .... 298 A GARLAND OF CHILDREN. By G. Woolhscroft Rhead ... 298
119.
120. 121.
246
252 =58
=58
264
264
274
274
276
276
278
278
282
284
284
286 289
290
ILLUSTRATIONS IN LINE
Feather-fan, Nimroud Peacock-feather Fan Head-piece . Initial — Boy with Fan Tea-fan
IX
xii xiii
1 9
PAGE
Initial — Vulture with Emblem of Protection 10
Fire-fan, Colombia . . . . I2
Portuguese ' Abano ' . . . . . 12
Plaited Hand-fan, Egyptian . . 13
Hand-fan, Egyptian ,3
XV111
ILLUSTRATIONS IN LINE
Hand-fan, Egyptian Fly-whisk, Egyptian Ceremonial Fans — from Rosellini
>> ij ...
Investiture of the Office of Fan-bearer Umbrella or Canopy of Chariot of Rameses m Initial — Assyrian Fly-whisk Assyrian and Persian Fly-whisks . Covers of Fly-whisks Tail-piece — from an Assyrian relief Initial — Greek Girl with Fan Greek Fans ..... Greek Girl with Fan Tail-piece — Girl with Fan Initial — from printed Cotton Hanging, India Cingalese Sesata ..... Fly-whisk — from an illumination .
,, from a painting on talc, Madras
Emblem of Royalty
Royal Standards .
Hand-fan, .
Plaited-Grass Fan
Flag-fan
Talapat Fan and Pankhas
Burmese Fan of Gold .
Portion of Embroidered Muslin (Chamba, Nineteenth Century)
Fly-whisk used by Jains
Circular Fan, ' Like the Moon ' .
Fan of Hsi Wang Mu (Japanese Painting British Museum) ....
Fan of Ming Dynasty (Painting, British
Museum) .... White Plumed Fan of Hsi Wang Mu Two Pear-shaped Screens Initial — Japanese Feather-fan, Japanese Painting Hand-screen, „ „
Fly-whisk, Upper Nile
PAGE
'4 '4 15 16
17 '9
20
26
27
28
32 33 37 38 38 39 40
41 41 41 42
43
44 45 46
47
47 48
49 60 61 61
77
|
PAGE |
|
|
Plaited Fans, South Pacific Islands |
79 |
|
Plaited Fans, Hawaiian |
80 |
|
Various Fans, Samoa .... |
81 |
|
„ British Guiana |
81 |
|
„ Ecuador and Peru . |
81 |
|
„ South-Eastern Pacific |
81 |
|
Flag-fan, West Africa .... |
83 |
|
Fly-whisk, Andaman Islands |
«5 |
|
Tahiti |
85 |
|
„ Matabele .... |
86 |
|
„ East African |
86 |
|
Angel with Flabellum .... |
87 |
|
Processional Flabellum |
88 |
|
Coptic Flabellum .... |
89 |
|
Flabellum, from Greek Psalter |
93 |
|
„ from Goar .... |
94 |
|
,, Monza .... |
96 |
|
Flag-fan, from Vatican (a glass vase) . |
98 |
|
Banner-fan, from ivory diptich |
99 |
|
Ghost-fan, Malay Archipelago |
106 |
|
Fan of Ferrara, or Duck's-foot, |
107 |
|
Fragments of Fan from Chateau de Pierre |
109 |
|
Small Rigid Fans, 1590 |
109 |
|
Feather-fan, Milan .... |
no |
|
Diagram of parts of Folding-fan . |
116 |
|
Rigid Screen of Bologna, 1590 . |
'27 |
|
Fan of Rice-straw, Fifteenth Century . |
'38 |
|
Dimensions of Fans, 1550-1780 . |
148 |
|
Japanese Lady's Court-fan . |
'75 |
|
Long-handled Feather-fan . |
.76 |
|
Ostrich-feather Folding-fan, Amsterdam |
196 |
|
Flag-fan, Titian |
204 |
|
Ivory Fan, Madras, Nineteenth Century |
231 |
|
Plaited Fan |
232 |
|
Hide-fan, from Benin . • • |
271 |
|
Queen Kapiolani's Fan |
272 |
|
From a Chinese Screen, Victoria and Albert |
|
|
Museum ...••• |
299 |
XIX
^
fc
t
&
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CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN
N the beginning, before the human advent, when the earth was peopled only by the Immortals, a bright son was born to Aurora, whose soft and agreeable breath was as honey in the mouth of the gods, and the beating of whose gossamer wings imparted a delicious coolness to the air, moderating the heat of summer, and providing the first suggestion of, and occasion for, the dainty little plaything we have under considera- tion, somewhat waggishly described as a kind of wind instrument, not, perhaps, so much to be played upon as to be played with, and invaluable as assisting to follow out the wisest of the Sage's maxims when he bids us keep cool.
This delicate toy, this airy creation of gauze, ivory, and paint, frail and fragile almost as the flowers kissed by Aurora's son, endowed apparently with the gift of perpetual youth, may claim a lineage older than the Pyramids ; having its origin and being in the infancy of the world, before the birth of history, in that golden age when life was a perpetual summer, and care was not, when all was concord and harmony, and old age, long protracted, was dissolved in a serene slumber, and wafted to the mansions of the gods, the regions of eternal love and enjoyment.
It was in these halcyon days that the human family sat in its palm groves, which afforded not only refreshing shade, during the hours when the sun is at its height, but also provided the precursor of this
A I
HISTORY OF THE FAN
' Servant of Zephyrus ' — serving further to temper those beams which are the source of all life, and light, and music, for are not all the learned agreed with the late Mr. George Augustus Sala, that if a thorn was the first needle, doubtless a palm leaf was the first fan ?
' Beneath this shade the weary peasant lies, Plucks the broad leaf, and bids the breezes rise.' '
The poets, however, who lay claim rather to inspiration than to the dry bones of mere learning, supply us with many fanciful suggestions as to the fan's origin — a Spanish story (duly told on a printed fan) has it that the first fan was a wing which Cupid tore from the back of Zephyrus for the purpose of fanning Psyche as she lay a-sleeping on her bed of roses.
A quaint, though somewhat inconsequent, conceit is that of the French eighteenth-century poet, Augustin de Piis, quoted by M. Uzanne in his work on the fan, in which Cupid, at an inopportune moment, surprises the Graces, who were as much embarrassed as the god was delighted — to hide their confusion, with the hand that was unemployed, they endeavoured to cover up both eyes by spreading the fingers.
' And soon Dan Cupid was aware
That though they veiled their eyes, between The fingers of that Trio fair
Himself was very clearly seen ; On which his little curly head
Deeply to meditate began, Till from their fair hands thus outspread
He took his first hint for the Fan.'
Whether we accept this explanation or not, and whatever circumstances attended the origin of the fan, it is abundantly clear that Cupid had a hand in it. Has not Gay told how the master Cupid traced out the lines, conceived the shape, converted his arrows into sticks, and from their
1 Gay, The Fan. 2
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THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN
barbed points, softened by love's flame, forged the pin ? Is not the fan one of the chief weapons in the armoury of the Love-God ? Is it not the rampart from behind which the fiercest fire of love's artillery is directed ? Nay, is it not in very truth the sceptre of the Love-God ? Did not the Greeks early recognise this fact by placing the plumed fan in the hands of Eros himself? The fan is at once the creation of Amor and the chief ensign of his sovereignty !
And its uses?
Madame la Baronne de Chapt, in the first volume of her CEuvres Philosophiqnes, discovers a hundred such: — 'It is so charming, so con- venient, so suited to give countenance to a young girl, and to extricate her from embarrassment, that it cannot be too much exalted ; we see it straying over cheeks, bosoms, hands, with an elegance which everywhere provokes admiration.
' Love uses a fan as an infant does a toy — makes it assume all sorts of shapes ; breaks it even, lets it fall a thousand times to the ground. . . .
' Is it a matter of indifference, this fallen fan ? Such a fall is the result of reflection, of careful calculation, intended as a test of the ardour and celerity of aspiring suitors. — And the successful suitor, the favoured swain ? Is it not he who discovers the greatest celerity in returning the fan to its charming owner, and, in doing so, imprints a secret but chaste kiss upon the fair hand that takes it, and is rewarded by a look ten thousand times more eloquent than speech ? '
And if, peradventure, by the spell of some magician, this little instrument could itself be endowed with speech ! Aha ! ma chere madame, what tales could it not unfold from the recesses of its fluted leaves, what whispers ! what confidences ! what assignations ! what intrigues !
' Pour une Espagnole,' writes Charles Blanc, ' toutes les intrigues de l'amour, tous les manoeuvres de la galanterie, sont cachees dans les plis de son even tail. Les audaces furtifs du regard, les aventures de la parole, les
3
HISTORY OF THE FAN
aveux risquds, les demi-mots profess du bout des levres, tout cela est dissimule" par 1'eVentail, qui a l'air d'interdire ce qu'il permet de faire, et d'intercepter ce qu'il envoie.'
Disraeli (Contarini Fleming), in similar strain, with no less eloquence, says : ' A Spanish lady with her fan might shame the tactics of a troop of horse. Now she unfolds it with the slow pomp and conscious elegance of the bird of Juno ; now she flutters it with all the languor of a listless beauty, now with all the liveliness of a vivacious one. Now in the midst of a very tornado she closes it with a whirr, which makes you start. Magical instrument ! in this land it speaks a particular language, and gallantry requires no other mode to express its most subtle conceits, or its most unreasonable demands, than this delicate machine.'
/Women,' says the witty Spectator, 'are armed with Fans as men with Swords — and sometimes do more execution with them. . . . There is an infinite variety of motions to be made use of in the flutter of a Fan. There is the angry Flutter, the modest Flutter, the timorous Flutter, the confused Flutter, the merry Flutter, and the amorous Flutter. Not to be tedious, there is scarce any emotion in the mind which does not produce a suitable agitation in the Fan ; insomuch that if I only see the Fan of a disciplined Lady I know very well whether she laughs, frowns, or blushes. I have seen a Fan so very angry, that it would have been dangerous for the absent lover who provoked it to have come within the wind of it : and at other times so very languishing, that I have been glad for the Lady's sake the lover was at a sufficient distance from it. I need not add that a Fan is either a Prude or Coquette according to the nature of the person who bears it.'
Mr. George Meredith, too, would appear to have studied its motions : ' Lady Denewdney's fan took to beating time meditatively. Two or three times she kept it elevated, and in vain : the flow of their interchanging speech was uninterrupted. At last my father bowed to her from a distance.
4
THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN
She signalled: his eyelids pleaded short sight, awakening to the apprehen- sion of a pleasant fact ; the fan tapped, and he halted his march, leaning scarce perceptibly in her direction. The fan showed distress! 1
In one of the sprightliest of Steele's letters to the Tatler, the beauteous Delamira, upon the eve of her marriage, resigns her fan, having no further occasion for it. She is entreated by the matchless Virgulta, who had begun to despair of ever entering the matrimonial state, to confide to her the secret of her success. ' That swimming air of your body,' says she ; ' that jaunty bearing of your Head over your shoulder ; and that inexpressible Beauty in your manner of playing your Fan, must be lower'd into a more confined Behaviour ; to show, That you would rather shun than receive Addresses for the future. Therefore, dear Delamira, give me these excellencies you leave off, and acquaint me with your Manner of Charming.' . . .
Delamira explained that all she had above the rest of her Sex and contemporary Beauties was wholly owing to a Fan (left to her by her Mother, and had been long in the Family), which, whoever had in Possession, and used with Skill, should command the hearts of all her Beholders ; ' and since,' said she, smiling, ' I have no more to do with extending my Conquests or Triumphs, I '11 make you a present of this inestimable Rarity.' ' You see, Madam,' continued she, upon Virgulta's in- quiry as to the Management of that utensil, ' Cupid is the principal Figure painted on it ; and the skill in playing this Fan is, in your several Motions of it to let him appear as little as possible : for honourable Lovers fly all Endeavours to ensnare 'em ; and your Cupid must hide his Bow and Arrow, or he'll never be sure of his Game. You may observe that in all publick Assemblies, the sexes seem to separate themselves, and draw up to attack each other with Eye-shot ; That is the time when the Fan, which is all the Armour of Woman, is of most use in her Defence ; for our
1 Adventures of Harry Richmond (the italics are ours).
5
HISTORY OF THE FAN
minds are constructed by the waving of that little Instrument, and our thoughts appear in Composure or Agitation according to the Motion of it. You may observe when Will Peregrine comes into the side Box, Miss Gatty flutters her Fan as a Fly does its Wings round a Candle ; while her elder Sister, who is as much in Love with him as she is, is as grave as a Vestal at his Entrance, and the consequence is accordingly. He watches half the Play for a Glance from her Sister, while Gatty is overlooked and neglected. I wish you heartily as much Success in the Management of it as I have had ; . . . Take it, good Girl, and use it without Mercy ; for the Reign of Beauty never lasted full Three Years, but it ended in Marriage, or Condemnation to Virginity.' '
If the fan is efficacious as a weapon of offence in Love's sieges, it is no less effective as a shield against Love's darts. On a painted Spanish fan in the Schreiber Collection in the British Museum are represented three fair nymphs in a wooded landscape, one of whom is receiving on her fan an arrow discharged by the Love-God, who is accompanied by my lady Venus in her car. On a scroll is the inscription, ' l'utilite" des eventails,' ' la utilidad de los abanicos.'
This use of the fan as shield is adopted also by the shinldting, or monastic novitiate of Burma, who employs his large palm-fan, both as a shelter from the fierceness of the sun's rays, and as a screen from the sight of womankind, moving, in the latter instance, his fan from right to left as occasion requires, i.e. whenever a woman happens to pass.
A story, the source of which is not given,2 is told of Goldoni, who, being one evening the guest of a Venetian lady, was complimented by her upon the productions of his genius.
' Why, my lady,' he replied, ' anything provides a subject for a comedy.'
1 Taller, No. 52, Aug. 9, 1709.
2 Goldoni in his Mimoires gives an account of ' The Fan.' It was written and first brought out in Paris, and soon became universally popular, especially in Venice. — Helen Zimmern, Masterpieces of Foreign Authors.
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THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN
'Anything?' replied the lady.
' Anything,' emphatically replied the dramatist.
' Even this fan ? ' insisted the Beauty.
' I shall be indebted to you for life,' exclaimed Goldoni, struck with a happy thought. ' You have suggested to me my best comedy ; in a week you will read it.' 1
Many and manifold are the uses of the fan. What device, for example, could better display the beauty of a rounded arm, or the ivory whiteness of taper fingers? Such an instrument provides graceful and often much- needed employment to those same delicate fingers ; it supplies that necessary sense of completeness to the tout ensemble of the picture. And the comedy actress, desiring some trifle to emphasise a movement, to give point and expression to some particular action — what more effective instrument than a fan, the use of which, on the stage, has almost been elevated into a fine art !
' Pray, ladies, copy Abington ; Observe the breeding in her air : There 's nothing of the actress there ! Assume her fashion if you can And catch the graces of her fan.'
This at once recalls the saying of Northcote, who, although reluctantly compelled to admit Queen Charlotte's excessive plainness, an elegant and not a vulgar plainness — she had a beautifully shaped arm, and was fond of exhibiting it — exclaimed, ' She had a fan in her hand. Lord ! how she held that fan ! 2
Madame D'Arblay, in one of her most delightful letters, records a conversation between herself and Mr. Fairly (Col. Stephen Digby), who, upon the occasion of a visit to her, ' finding she entered into nothing,'
1 M. A. Flory, A Book about Fans.
2 Letter of Mrs. Scott, 1761, to her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robinson. — Dr. Doran, A Lady of the Last Century (Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu).
HISTORY OF THE FAN
took up a fan which lay on the table and began playing off various imitative airs with it, exclaiming, ' How thoroughly useless a toy!'
' " No," I said, "on the contrary, taken as an ornament, it was the most useful of any belonging to full dress ; occupying the hands, giving the eyes something to look at, and taking away stiffness and formality from the figure and deportment."
'"Men have no fans," cried he, "and how do they do?"
' " Worse," quoth I plumply.
' " But the real use of the fan," cried he, " if there is any, is it not — to hide a particular blush that ought not to appear?"
' " Oh no, it would rather make it the sooner noticed."
' " Not at all ; it may be done under pretence of absence — rubbing the cheek, or nose — putting it up accidentally to the eye — in a thousand ways." '
The uses of the Fan ? They are legion ! — They record for us public events, military, political, civil ; they tell us our fortunes ; instruct us in Botany, in Heraldry, in tricks with cards ; they propound conundrums ; take us to the theatre, to bull-fights, to church, to the first balloon ascent ; and to Mr. Thomas Osborne's Duck-hunting !
In Shakespeare's day no lady thought of stirring abroad without this accompaniment, the care of the toy devolving upon the gentleman usher —
' Peter, take my fan and go before.'
Romeo and Juliet.
From the Aubrey MS., 1678, we learn that 'the gentlemen (temp. Henry vm.) had prodigious fans, as is to be seen in old pictures,1 like that instrument which is used to drive feathers, and in it a handle at least half a yard long ; with these the daughters were oftentimes
1 In an engraving of an English Noblewoman by Gaspar Rutz, 1581, a long-handled feather- fan appears.
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THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN
corrected (Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief-Justice, rode the circuit with such a fan; Sir William Dugdale told me he was an eye-witness of it;1 the Earl of Manchester also used such a fan); but fathers and mothers slasht their daughters in the time of their besom discipline when they were perfect women.' 2
Hotspur's exclamation, i Henry IV., II. iii., further serves to show that this instrument could, upon occasion, be used as an offensive weapon : 'Zounds! an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan.' The strength hidden in such an apparently harmless toy is thus recognised equally by both sterner and gentler sex : the hint contained in the quaint and charming conceit addressed to the fan of his mistress by Louis de Boissy, author of Le Babillard, will not be lost upon lovers : ' Deviens le protecteur de ma vive tendresse, Bel eventail ! je te remets mes droits ; Et si quelque rival avait la hardiesse D'approcher de trop pres du sein de ma maitresse, Bel eventail : donne-lui sur les doigts ! '
1 The fan here referred to was chiefly used inside the Courts as punkah, to create a little circulation of the air, and to dissipate the horrible odours for which these places were notorious.
2 This assertion that the handles of fans were occasionally employed in the castigation of refractory children is borne out by the droll story of Sir Thomas More punishing his daughters with a fan of peacock's feathers for the offence of running him into debt with the milliner.
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CHAPTER II
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS EGYPT
THE word fan, or van, is derived
from the Latin vannus, the Roman
instrument for winnowing grain.
This winnowing -fan, held sacred
by all the peoples of the ancient
world, together with the fire-fan
(bellows), also a sacred instrument,
and used by the priestesses of Isis to fan the flame of their altars —
these must be accounted amongst the earliest of the ancient and prolific
fan-family. To the first named are several references in Holy Writ.
Isaiah, xxx. 24, speaks of the oxen and young asses that shall eat clean
provender which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
Jeremiah, xv. 6-7, lamenting the backsliding of Jerusalem, exclaims, ' I
am weary with repenting ; and I will fan them with a fan in the
gates of the land ' ; and again in li. 2, ' Send unto Babylon fanners
that shall fan her, and shall empty her land.'
In Matt. iii. 12, and Luke iii. 17, John the Baptist, announcing
the coming of ' one mightier than I ' — ' He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will
throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner.'
Both these instruments appear on a bas-relief from a tomb at
Sakkarah, of the twelfth Pharaonic dynasty, circa B.C. 2366-2266, sixteen
10
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
hundred years before Isaiah wrote. In this some shepherds are roasting trussed and spitted ducks over fires which are being kept alive by the plaited, wedge-shaped hand-fan ; the winnowing-fan appearing in the same picture.
Servius, in commenting on Virgil's mystical fan of Bacchus, (' mystica vannus Iacchi,' Georg. i. 166) affirms that the sacred rites of Bacchus pertained to the purification of souls ; in Assyria, also, it was introduced in the ceremonies connected with the worship of Bacchus and became a sacred emblem.1 This instrument, carried at the Dionysia or festivals in honour of Bacchus, was called Lichnon {^xvov), and was so essential to the solemnities of this god, that they could not be duly celebrated without it. So also Osiris, when judge of Amenti, holds in his crossed hands the crook and flagellum, the mystical vannus — 'whose fan is in his hand,'2 each of these instances having reference to the generative principle, and the improvement of the world by tillage.
The passage in Jeremiah xiii. 24, ' Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness,' suggested the proud motto of the Kentish family of Septvans (Setvans):
' Dissipabo inimicos Regis mei ut paleam.'
' The enemies of my king will I disperse like chaff.' 3
On the brass of Sir Robert de Septvans, 1306, Chartham, Kent, the
knight's shield and aillettes upon the shoulders are charged with the
winnowing-fans from which he takes his name, and small fans are
embroidered upon his surcoat. In the Lansdowne MSS. 855 B.M., the arms are thus given : ' Sir robt de sevens dazur e iij vans dor.'
1 Layard, Nineveh. J Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.
8 Thus Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Scene iii. :
' in the wind and tempest of her frown, Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, Puffing at all, winnows the light away; And what hath mass, or matter, by itself Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.' I I
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The Greeks named pwi? the large flat instrument which was used to fan the fire : the diminutive piniSiov was applied to objects of similar form in ordinary use amongst both sexes for the purpose of fanning as well as to drive away the flies. Indeed the use of the fan as bellows
appears to have been practically universal, and to have dated from a very early period of the world's history.
The employment of these instruments, as well as the forms which they assumed, is con- tinued even to the present day : l in the Republic of Colombia, where fans are employed as much by men as by women, the kitchen of every hut and house throughout the country is provided with a fan in lieu of bellows, rectangular in form, albeit broader at the outside than at the short handle, and about 12 inches by 9 inches in size. These are formed of the young inside leaf of the cabbage-palm, the handle and back being the rib of the leaf, the fan portion being the fronds of the leaf plaited.
The Portuguese fire-fans (Abano) made in the south of Portugal, and in universal use in that country, are round in shape, coarsely plaited in straw or rush, and fixed in a rough wooden handle.
These, representing the two simplest elemental forms, are the primeval fans which have come down to us from the remotest periods of history, have endured through the centuries, and, like the fans in use in India at present, identical as a matter of fact with these in form, are as modern as they are ancient.
1 In a painting which represents a sacrifice to Isis, Ant. di Ercolano, ii. 60, a priest is seen fanning the fire upon the altar with a triangular flabellum, such as is still used in Italy. (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.')
12
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
These two fans, the winnowing-fan and the fire-fan, minister to the two most pressing of man's necessities — to the first of his physical necessities, his daily bread, and to his chief mental necessity, the attainment of the bread of life ; the fire-fan keeping alive the flame sacred to the great goddess who is the mother of all things, mistress of the elements, giver of the golden grain, which, when ripened, is separated from the chaff by the winnowing-fan ; the one instrument, therefore, being the complement and counterpart of the other.
The Egyptian plaited hand-fan, used for fanning the fire, as well as for other domestic purposes, was made in a precisely similar way to the Portuguese 'Abano' above referred to, except that instead of being a complete circle, it assumed the form of a rather full crescent. In the painted decoration of a tomb at Eileithyia, representing the interior of a storeroom, a workman is cooling, by means of one of these hand-fans, the liquid which is contained in a number of vases or amphorae.
In a great funeral procession of a royal scribe at
Thebes, servants carry, among other offerings, similar
crescent-shaped matted fans, together with, in three
instances, the more ornamental semicircular feather
hand-fan used by ladies for the purpose of fanning
themselves, and also, with a somewhat longer handle,
waved by servitors in attendance upon great personages
of both sexes.
On an Egyptian tablet or stele of the twelfth dynasty, in the British
Museum, the lady Khu is seated with her husbands, receiving offerings
from their children ; a hand-fan of semicircular form rests against the
seat ; this evidently not of feathers, but rigid, since the construction is
13
HISTORY OF THE FAN
suggested in the representation, and obviously used by the lady herself rather than by attendants.
The handles of these fans were of ivory, of wood painted, or of sandalwood, which latter, when warmed by the fingers, exhaled a delicious perfume.
A few fan-handles exist in the various public museums ; two occur in the British Museum, together with a portion of a handle inscribed with the name of Nebseni, inspector of the goldsmiths of Amen, eighteenth dynasty, illustrated opposite. A primitive fly-whisk, of the type seen on the Assyrian monuments, appears in the Louvre, under Egypt, but undated and undescribed ; it is formed of grassy reeds of a buff ochre colour, bent backwards at the handle, and rudely tied with the same substance, the length being about 2 feet 6 inches.
The standard, banner, and processional fans are usually formed of the feathers of the larger birds, fixed in a long wooden handle, the feathers, as well as the handle, being painted or dyed in brilliant colours. These, as will be seen by a reference to the examples from Rosellini, are designed with the consummate sense of proportion distinguishing all Egyptian work. In both the examples given, the tips of the feathers are surmounted by a tuft of small fluffy feathers, this being a device common to many countries, and is seen in the North American Indian fan illustrated, page 82.
Many of these standard and processional fans, doubtless, were formed of some material stretched upon a semicircular frame, the fan decorated in various ways. They were in attendance on the king wherever he went ; they were also used as standards in war, the king's chariot being
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FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
always accompanied by at least two. The fact that they were dedicated to the service of the gods is evidenced by a stele in the museum at Boulak, on which is represented Osiris enthroned with a flabellifer behind, waving the long-handled fan. The radiate fans, writes Professor Flinders Petrie, were used as sunshades, appearing in hieroglyphs as the determination of Khaib, i.e. shadow.
In the temple of Rameses xil, B.C. 1135, a tablet represents the departure of the Khonsu from Thebes to the land of Bakhatana. A standard fan of ostrich feathers of the Indian murchal type is fixed in the bow of the boat bearing the god in his ark, and a semicircular standard fan in the stern ; both being inclined so as to meet above, and overshadow the ark.1 In the temple of Derri in Nubia, the sacred barque of the god Phre" is solemnly borne by twelve priests, the king accompanying in military costume; a flabellifer waves the long- handled fan.
1 Sir George Birdwood, Society of Arts, 1903. *5
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Numerous representations of these long -handled, semicircular, standard fans occur on the monuments. At Thebes (Rhamessium) is
figured a reception of the military chiefs and foreign envoys by Rameses in. Two servitors behind the king carry these fans, and two fan- bearers wave the ostrich-feather emblem.
At Medinet Abu, the same king is seated in his chariot with three servitors waving the long- handled, semicircular fans.
The tall, single ostrich plume was probably in the first instance a fly-whisk. It was the principal ensign of the office of fan-bearer, which was one of great distinction, and one of the highest in the gift of the monarch, none but royal princes or scions of the first nobility being permitted to hold it. The ceremony of investiture took place in the presence of the king seated upon his throne, and was usually performed after a victory, and granted for some distinguished service in the field. Two priests invest the holder with the robe, chain, and other insignia of his office, the fortunate recipient of the honour raising aloft the flabellum and crook, thus expressing his fidelity to his king and master. This was the usual formula of investiture of high office; its resemblance to the biblical account of Joseph's advancement will at once be apparent.
'And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.'
Upon the field of battle the fan-bearers either attended the monarch on foot or took command of a division with the rank of general. During
16
CEREMONIAL FANS (From Rosellirti.)
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
the heat of battle, whether mounted in cars or engaged on foot, they
either carried the emblem of their office in their hand, or slung it behind
them. Their privileges were many, amongst them being the right of
presenting prisoners to the king after a victory. The office was divided
into two grades — those who served upon the right and left of the
king respectively, the most honourable post being always conferred upon
those of the highest rank, or for
the most distinguished services.
A certain number were always on
duty, and were required to carry
the monarch in the palanquin or
chair of state, and to attend
during the grand solemnities of
the temple and upon all occasions
of high state ceremonial.
The monuments bear elo- quent testimony to the importance and significance of this object. At Thebes (palace of Medinet Abu), Rameses Mdiamoun appears in a magnificent palanquin, sur- rounded by no less than twenty bearers of the fan emblem, amongst whom are the sons of the king.
In the same palace the ten sons of Rameses appear in the order of their precedence, bearing the emblem ; the hieroglyphics, by their side, indicating their name and functions.
On an occasion when the king (Rameses iv.) receives the homage of the chiefs of the army, two servitors with the long semicircular fans, and
two bearers of the fan emblem, are in attendance. c 17
INVESTITURE OF THE OFFICE OF FAN-BEARER (From Wilkinson.)
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The highest significance of the fan emblem is when it is grasped by the talons of the sacred vulture, guardian and protectress of the monarchs. This figure occurs repeatedly on the monuments ; at Medinet Abu, Rameses - M&amoun is seen subduing an army of Asiatics, the vulture waving the fan emblem over the head of the king.
In the temple of Beit Oually in Nubia, Rameses n., helmeted, is striding over a fallen barbarian ; the vulture of protection hovers around the head of the hero. On the same monument Rameses seizes by the hair a barbarian with broken bow, the vulture again in attendance. Upon the completion of the victory, four fan-bearers, each with crook and fiabellum, offer the spoils of conquest to the king.
On a bas-relief at Thebes, Seti i. is seen in his war-chariot sub- duing the barbarians, also accompanied by the vulture.
At Philae, Ptolemy Philometor appears with a group of vanquished Asiatics, the vulture once more in attendance.
In the papyrus of Hunefer (Book of the Dead) a winged Utchat, with Eye of Horus, waves the fan emblem over the head of Osiris.
In the papyrus of Anhai, over the Standard of the West, which crowns the Solar Mount and supports the hawk Ra-Harmachis, two winged Hori appear as the protecting principle.
This symbol of the vulture forms a motif for surface decoration on the ceiling of the hypostyle hall of the Rhamessium. Above the great bell capital, the vulture, grasping in each talon a fan emblem, is treated as a repeated ornamental pattern ; it also appears as decoration of the umbrella or canopy of the chariot of Rameses in. (Sesostris).
We are thus enabled to realise the great part played by the fan
alike in the military, civil, and religious life of Egypt. As an instrument
in the hands of private persons, or even of slaves in attendance on
individuals, it is less in evidence on the monuments, although we may
naturally assume that in a climate such as Egypt this instrument would
18
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
be in constant requisition. We strain the eye of imagination to the very earliest period of the history of this mystic land, and see in fancy the Queen of Menes the Thinite, surrounded by slaves only a little less fair than herself, waving the fan of square form actually appearing on a cylinder in the Louvre ; we see, also in fancy, the famed and beautiful Queen Nit6cris, the handsomest woman of her time, builder of the third Pyramid, reclining upon her couch, the air being rendered less oppressive by the waving of the soft feather fan with which the monuments have made us familiar. Lastly, have we not Shakespeare's glowing picture of the fanning of the voluptuous 'serpent of old Nile,' Cleopatra?
' For her owne person, It begger'd all description : she did lye In her Pavillion, Cloth of Gold, of tissue, O'er-picturing that Venus, where we see The fancie out-worke nature ; on each side her Stood pretty- Dimpled boyes, like smiling Cupids, With divers-colour'd fannes whose winde did seem To glowe the delicate cheekes which they did coole, And what they undid, did.'
UMBRELLA OR CANOPY OF THE CHARIOT OF RAMESES 111.
19
HISTORY OF THE FAN
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS— Continued
ASSYRIA
THE employment of the fan in the religious ceremonies of Assyria has already been hinted at. There can be no possibility of doubt that the ceremonies and customs, both sacred and secular, connected with the fan, were common to all the countries of the East, these being the offspring of similar conditions and necessities. Thus we have in Assyrian sculpture frequent representa- tions of the fly-whisk. On a bas-relief from Nimroud King Sennacherib is standing in his chariot superintend- ing the moving of a colossal figure at the building of his palace at Kouyunjik, two attendants behind the chariot bearing an umbrella and fly-whisk ; on another relief we see Assur-bani-pal standing, bow and arrow in hand, pouring out a libation over four dead lions before an altar, his umbrella- bearer and fly-flapper being in attendance. We are also introduced to the garden or palm-grove of Assur-bani-pal's palace, wherein the king is being entertained by his queen at a banquet ; the queen holding in her left hand what is evidently a small fan and of the shape and general appearance of the pleated fan, but probably rigid.
The royal fan-bearers were two in number, invariably eunuchs, their usual place being behind the monarch. The long-tasselled scarf appears to be the badge of the office, which was one of great dignity. Its holder was privileged to leave his station behind the throne and hand his master the
sacred cup, the royal scent-bottle, or handkerchief, which latter article
20
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
invariably appears in the left hand. The usage of this office seems to have
been very similar to that of Egypt ; in the absence of the vizier, or in
subordination to him, he introduced captives to
the king, reading out their names from a scroll
or tablet in his left hand.1
The matter of the 'handkerchief opens up
an important question. Sir George Birdwood, in
a masterly address before the Society of Arts on
the subject of ancient fans, says : ' On a " marble"
in the British Museum, from Kouyunjik (near
Mossul, i.e. Nineveh), representing Sennacherib,
B.C. 681-705, enthroned before Lachish, two attend- ants stand behind the throne, each waving in
his right hand, over the monarch's head, a murchal
(fly-whisk) of undoubted peacocks' feathers, and
each bearing in his left hand what I identify
as the cover of the murchal. It is absurd to take it to be a pocket-handkerchief.'
On the other hand, Mr. S. W. Bushell, in his Handbook of Chinese Art, refers to the fan- and towel-bearers in the Chinese sculptures of the Han dynasty ; these, although somewhat differing in shape from those of the Assyrian reliefs, evidently served a similar purpose.
It is an extremely difficult point to de- termine ; in the reliefs of Assur-bani-pal at Susiana, of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, and others, two flabelliferas walk behind the king's
chariot bearing in their right hands the fly-whisks, their left hands not
1 George Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World.
21
HISTORY OF THE FAN
being seen. Standing in the umbrella-covered chariot, immediately behind the king and charioteer, a figure bears a smaller handkerchief or cover in his right hand, but no evidence of a fly-whisk. The left hand in this instance also does not appear in the relief. In a representation of Assur-bani-pal in the Louvre (Layard, Monuments, Series n. Plate 51), the king holds in his right hand a small fan ; an attendant behind holds the cover or handkerchief in his right hand, but no fly-whisk. These objects are in most instances fringed, and in some cases embroidered with a narrow border.
Assyrian fly-whisks were usually of feathers, set in a short handle of ivory, wood, or other material, carved or otherwise ornamented. There were two kinds, a smaller one which was a kind of brush, made of horse-hair or vegetable fibre, and a larger one of feathers ; the short brush fan belongs to the earlier period, the long feathered form to the later.1
The two forms, however, appear at the same time. In the bas-relief of the banquet above referred to, attendants bear dishes of fruits and meats, each being provided with the small fly-whisk, evidently for the purpose of driving away insects from the royal dishes.
The ceremonies and usages connected with the fly-whisk open up a vast field of inquiry, far too involved to be adequately dealt with here ; some few aspects may, however, be touched upon.
Baal-zebub, Beel-zebub, Beel-zebut, Bel-zebub, the Philistine god of Ekron, whom the Jews represented as Prince of Devils, was literally Lord Fly, or Lord of the Flies. When Ahaziah was sick he sent to consult the Lord Fly's oracle.2
The word Baal simply means owner, master, or lord. In Phoenicia and Carthage it was the custom of kings and great men to unite their names with that of their god, as Hannibal, ' grace of Baal,' Hasdrubal, ' help of Baal.' Amongst the Jews also many names of cities were compounded with Baal ;
1 Rawlinson. - 2 Kings i. i, 3, 6, 16.
22
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
as Baal-Gad, Baal-Hammon, Baal-Thamar. In the ' authorised version ' the name is Baal-zebub, afterwards changed to Beel-zebub ; the original con- ception is, however, one of great difficulty and obscurity, unless, indeed, we may directly connect the worship of Baal with that of the sun. Josephus declares that the Assyrians erected the first statue of Mars, and worshipped him as a God, calling him Baal. We read in the book of Kings how Josiah destroyed the altars which had been reared by Manasseh, and ' put down the idolatrous priests, . . . them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven'; these instances suggesting that Baal and the sun were two separate deities. On the other hand, Baal-Hammon is represented on a Cartha- ginian monument with a crown of rays. Baalbek was called by the Greeks Heliopolis (sun-city) and at Baal-Shemeh (house of the sun) there was a temple to Baal.
If, therefore, we may regard Baal and the sun as synonymous, the matter is at once simplified, since the sun is the bringer of flies, and is in actual fact Lord of the Flies.
According to Pliny, the Cyrenians offered sacrifices to the fly-catching god Achor, because the flies bred pestilence, and this author remarks that no sooner is the sacrifice offered, than the flies perish.
The Greeks had their Jupiter Myiodes, or fly-hunter, to whom a bull was sacrificed in order to propitiate him in driving away the flies which infested the Olympic Games. There was also a Hercules Myiodes, the origin of whose worship Pausanias declares to have been the following : — Hercules, being molested by swarms of flies while he was about to offer sacrifice to Olympian Jupiter in the temple, offered a victim to that god under the name of Myagron, upon which all the flies flew away beyond the river Alpheus. Pausanias further refers to the festival of Athena at Aliphera in Arcadia, which was opened with a sacrifice and prayer to the Fly- catcher, and states that after the sacrifice, the flies gave no further trouble.
23
HISTORY OF THE FAN
^Elian {Nat. An., xi. 8) affirms that at the festival of Apollo in the island of Leucas, an ox was sacrificed ; the flies, glutted with the blood, gave no further trouble. The same author states that the flies of Pisa (Olympia) were more virtuous, because they did their duty, not for a consideration, but out of pure regard for the god.1
Scaliger derives the name of Beel-zebub, the false god, from Baalim- Zebabim, which signifies lord of sacrifices. This deity was worshipped during the time of our Saviour, who is accused by the Pharisees of casting out devils by Beel-zebub, the prince of the devils. So Holman Hunt, in his picture of the finding of the Saviour in the Temple, with fine perception, places a fly-whisk in the hand of a child.2 A child is here propounding to his elders a purer and loftier system of ethics than had heretofore been dreamed of; a child, likewise, banishes the servants of Belial.
With the Jewish writers of the Middle Ages the worship of Baal frequently signified the practising of the rites of the Christian religion ; thus Rabbi Joseph Ben Meir in his Chronicles states that Clovis forsook his God and worshipped Baal, and that a high place was built at Paris for Baal Dionysius, i.e. the Cathedral of St. Denis.3
The Assyrians employed the tall standard and sceptral fans in a precisely similar way to the Egyptians. In the restoration of the palace of Sargon (Khorsabad), compiled by Felix Thomas, given by Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Chaldcea and Assyria, vol. ii. p. 24, two enormous frond standards are placed at the entrance to the Harem Court, these being circular, formed of palm fronds in bronze gilt. ' In India, as in Japan,' to quote again Sir George Birdwood, 'the standard is often blazoned with some totemistic, symbolical, or heraldic device, and it was probably so blazoned in Assyria, for from Assyria the practice
1 Pausanias, Frazer, vol. iii. 558.
2 ' The fly-whisk in the picture is introduced because flies were held to be creatures of Beel-zebub, the god of flies, and therefore to be driven away.' (Letter of Mr. W. Holman Hunt to the author.)
3 National Encyclopaedia.
24
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
spread to Greece and Rome of using such devices on both standards and shields. Later this ritual was revived by the Saracens, and was spread over mediaeval Europe by the Crusaders returning from the Holy Land.'
The Assyrian disc-standards were probably of brass or other metal, fixed to the inside of the chariot. Two devices appear on the monu- ments— the Divine Archer standing on a bull, and two bulls running in opposite directions. These were enclosed in a circle at the end of a long staff ornamented with streamers and tassels.1
The Assyrians employed the primitive plaited fan, used in Egypt, both crescent-shaped, square, and triangular. On a relief from Nimroud, in the British Museum, in a circular arrangement divided into four compartments, representing the interior of a castle with towers and battlements, a eunuch is waving in his right hand, over a stand on which are vases and bowls, a square, flag-shaped fan, certainly of the plaited variety ; in the left hand is what appears to be a fly-whisk.
On a silver dish in the Strogonoff collection illustrated in Orientalische Teppiche, Alois Riegl, a Sassanian monarch is seated, cross-legged, holding a tazza, and attended by two servitors, one of whom waves a plaited flag- fan of oblong shape. The dish, which bears strong traces of Indian influence, is probably of the period of Varannes n., a.d. 273-277.
The swinging-fan, suspended from the ceiling, and operated by pulling a cord, is an ancient device for cooling the air of rooms. The testimony of an Assyrian bas-relief from Nineveh indicates its use at the period to which these sculptures belong — seventh to tenth century B.C. Wicquefort, in his translation of the embassy of Garcias de Figueron, gives the name of fan to a kind of chimney or ventiduct, in use among the Persians, to furnish air and wind into their houses, without which the heat would be insupportable.2
1 Layard, Nineveh. " Chambers's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences.
D 25
HISTORY OF THE FAN
A variant of this device for ventilating rooms is recorded in Chinese annals. Under the Han dynasty, B.C. 205 - a. d. 25, a skilful workman at Chang — and named Ting Huan — made a fan of seven large wheels 10 feet in diameter, the whole turned by a single man.
The luxurious Guez de Balzac, in the twentieth letter, written from Rome in 1621, to the Cardinal de la Villette, with his customary extrava- gant hyperbole, describes his method of guarding against the heat during the broiling month of July — ' Four servants constantly fan my apartments ; they raise wind enough to make a tempestuous sea!
FROM A BAS-RELIEF. (Nimroud.)
26
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FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS— Continued GREECE AND ROME
IN Greece, as in Egypt, the fan had a sacred as well as a secular use. M. Uzanne refers to the fan of feathers which those discreet and irreproachable ladies, the Vestals, made use of to fan the flame of their sacrifices, and, rather roguishly, seizes the idea of fan- ning the flame to suggest that of inward flames kindled by the arrows of the little god Cupid, in place of the chaste ardours of the sacred mysteries. The fans of the priests of Isis, when Isis was a Grecian divinity, were formed of the wings of a bird, attached to the end of a long wand, and thus made to resemble the caduceus of Mercury.
The Greeks received the fan from Egypt and Assyria through the Phoenicians, who were the traders between the east and the west. In the sarcophagus of Amanthus (Cyprio - Phoenician), representing a train of horsemen, footmen, and chariots, the horses' heads are adorned with a pleated fan crest, similar to that which was used by the Persians ; the figure in the first biga carries a parasol. Thus Perrot and Chipiez in their description of this monument : ' The parasol which shades the head of the great person in the first biga is the symbol of Asiatic royalty : the fan-shaped plume which rises above the heads of all the chariot horses, is an ornament that one sees in the same position in Assyria and Lycia,
when the sculptor desires to represent horses magnificently caparisoned.'
27
HISTORY OF THE FAN
This remarkable example is of the highest interest as showing that the pleated form — in this instance, doubtless, rigid, and fixed to a short handle, also seen in both Egyptian and Assyrian monuments — has been employed from a very remote period.1
The earliest Greek fans were, doubtless, branches of the myrtle,
acacia, the triple leaves of the Oriental plantain, and also the leaves of the
lotus, which latter, together with the myrtle, were consecrated to Venus,
were symbols of the dolce far niente, and therefore peculiarly appropriate
to this instrument of reposeful ease. The myrtle bough was also used
by the Romans, as we learn from Martial, iii. 82, serving at the same
time as fan and fly-flap —
' Et aestuanti tenue ventilat frigus Supina prasino concubina flabello ; Fugatque muscas myrtea puer virga.'
The single leaf or heart-shaped fan occurs constantly in Greek terra- cottas ; a number of examples are to be seen in the British and other Museums. In the Victoria and Albert Museum is a charming little
1 See page 109. 28
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FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
winged Amor, draped, tripping gaily along, hiding his face behind a fan of this shape. Blondel refers to a female figure in the Louvre, seated at a feast, holding a leaf-fan ; also in a fresco at Pompeii a figure is seen holding a fan which this author mistakes for that of a different shape, but which is really a perspective view of the plantain-leaf. We see the triform leaf- fan in the hands of a Tanagra figure in the collection of Louis Fould, illustrated in the Gazette des Beaux- Arts for i860; this, as well as a number of Tanagra figures, evidently representing priestesses of Venus. It is impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy the material and construction of these fans : in some instances they are evidently stretched on a frame, and adorned with ornament either painted or embroidered ; occasionally, also, the decorative motif is that of the natural veining of the leaf; the handles being usually very short, in many cases scarcely visible. The slight vestiges of colour remaining on these statuettes must in no instance be taken as suggesting the colouring of the original fans. The business of the Tanagra sculptor was to make a statuette and not a portrait of any particular fan ; the colouring of the fan of the statuette would therefore be determined by the general colour scheme of which it formed a part.
The circular fan of peacocks' feathers appears as early as the fifth century B.C., and even at this date had already been used in Asia Minor.
References to the feather-fan are of constant occurrence in the writings of Greek authors. A slave in the Orestes of Euripides exclaims : ' After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of feathers to be fanning the gale, that sported in the ringlets of Helen.'
Instances of the feather-fan are common on Greek vases, — on the
Campanian Hydra (F. 212), British Museum, the shape in this instance
being that of the reversed heart. In the fourth vase room, on an oil-flask,
with Aphrodite seated in the lap of Adonis, a figure appears holding a very
large fan, but similar in shape to the first mentioned ; and on the Apulian
29
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Hydra, F. 352, a fan appears which is evidently a conventional representa- tion of the peacock feather-fan. The long-handled fan was also adopted by the Greeks, these being waved by servants or attendants, as in Egypt. The Etruscans, amongst whom the luxury of the fan is early seen, and who transmitted it later to the Romans, used the peacock feathers, of
different lengths, in a semicircle : such a fan appears on a large vase in the Louvre.
On an Etruscan crater, re- presenting Heracles strangling the serpents, surrounded by the greater gods, a fan of plain feathers is held in the hand of one of the attend- ants. On a sarcophagus at Vulci, found in the winter of 1845-6, a female figure appears waving a large fan, /5ims, identical in shape with fans used in India at the present day. In the Grotta del Sole e della Luna (tomb of the Sun and Moon) at Vulci, discovered in 1830, one of the ceilings has a singular fan-pattern, given in Mon. Ined. Inst., i. tav. xli., the counterpart of which is found in two tombs at Cervetri, whence we may conclude it was no uncommon decoration in Etruscan houses.1
In the Museo Gregorio, Rome, are half-a-dozen handles of fans, with holes for threads or wire, to tie in feathers or leaves.
' The fashion of the fan,' says M. de Linas,2 ' was probably introduced into Italy in the sixth century B.C. We learn from Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, that Aristodemus, tyrant of Cumae, and ally of Porsenna, corrupted
FROM AN APULIAN HYDRA. (British Museum.)
1 Dennis, Cities ami Cemeteries of Etruria.
Revue de /'Art Chrtticn% 1883.
30
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FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
the youths of this town by making them effeminate buffoons, accompanied by followers who carried the nabellum and umbrella.'
The fan, although perhaps in less constant use by the Romans, was still an article of very general employment. In the Eunuchus of Terence we are introduced to a pretty scene in which the fan plays an important part. Chaerea is relating to Antipho his good fortune with the fair Thais :
Chaerea. While I was revolving these things in my mind, the virgin meanwhile was called away to bathe ; she goes, bathes, and returns, after which they laid her on a couch ; I stand waiting to see if they had any orders for me. At last, one came up and said — ' Here, Dorus, take this fan, and, while we are bathing, fan her thus. When we have done you may bathe too, if you have a mind.' I take it very demurely.
Antipho. I could have then wished to see that impudent face of thine, and the awkward figure so great a booby must make holding a fan.
Chaerea. Scarce had she done speaking, when in a moment they all hurried out of the room, and ran to the bath in a noisy manner, as is usual when masters are absent. Meantime, the virgin falls asleep. I steal a private glance thus, with the corner of my eye, through the fan ; at the same time look round every- where, to see if the coast was quite clear. . . .
The Romans employed the fly-flap {muscarium) formed of peacocks' feathers, which was often provided with a long handle, so that the fan could be waved by a servant (jlabellifer), who protected his mistress from the insects during sleep.
Plautus, Trinummus, n. i., refers to these flabilliferae, but in this instance the term is obviously applied to female fan-bearers.
Propertius, n. xxiv. u, speaks of flabella of the tail feathers of the peacock.
The peacock fly-flap is also referred to by Martial, xiv. 67 :
' What, from thy food, repels profaning flies, Strutted, a gorgeous train, with Gemmy eyes.'
' Lambere quae turpes prohibet tua prandia muscas, Alitis eximiae cauda superba fuit.' 31
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The same author, in. lxxii. io-i i, says of Zoilus that when overcome by the heat, a pleasant coolness is wafted about him with a leek-green flabellum.
The Romans also adopted the tail of the yak, but this last, which appears to have been imported from India, was not so commonly used as the tabellae, a species of fan of square or circular shape, formed of precious wood or very finely cut ivory, referred to by Ovid in the third book of his A mores. ' Wouldst thou,' he exclaims, ' have an agreeable zephyr to refresh thy face? This tablet agitated by my hand will give you this pleasure.' Those also were the fans the young Roman exquisites carried when accompanying their mistresses along the Via Sacra, fanning them gallantly, representations of which appear on vases in the Louvre.1
Propertius, also, in the fourth book of his Elegies, represents Hercules as seated at the feet of Omphale, fan in hand.
1 In a wall-painting of a sacrifice, Rome (Vatican), given by George Buss, Der Ftichcr, a circular fan-tablet is seen.
FROM AN ETRUSCAN VASE. (British Museum.)
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CHAPTER III
FANS OF THE FAR EAST
INDIA
IT is difficult for the Western mind to realise the degree of importance assumed by the fan, the fly-flap, and the umbrella, in the countries of the Far East, especially India ; these objects being regarded with an affection almost, indeed actually, amounting to rever- ence. Its primal cause is to be found in the overpowering insistence of the sun's rays, and the sense of grateful relief afforded by shade and disturbance of the air. To dis- cover its origin we must look back, beyond the age of legendary lore, to actual mythology, when we find representations of the Puranic snake gods of India with the sacred umbrella over their heads, attended by Cherubim waving the fan and the fly-flap. Similarly we find the sacred five- or seven-headed cobra itself assuming the office of sunshade, uprearing its hood to form a canopy for Buddha or for the Hindoo gods.
In the Mahdbh&rata, the ancient epic of Hindostan, we have a description of the death of the monarch Pandou, in which great crowds assemble at the bier to do homage to the dead, bringing offerings of e 33
HISTORY OF THE FAN
fly-flaps and white umbrellas, the latter having each a hundred ribs of pure gold, the donors thereby ensuring for themselves a place in Paradise.
In the same epic, the poet represents the sacred Kama, in the midst of the acclamations of victory, seated majestically upon his throne, beneath the emblems of the umbrella, the fan, and the fly-flap; these being regarded as the most solemn symbols of state throughout the East.
Thus, the title of the King of Burmah is ' Lord of the twenty-four umbrellas,' this being the number always borne before the Emperor of China upon every state occasion, and accompanying him even to the hunting-field.1
The connection between this umbrella-reverence and primitive tree- worship is abundantly established, both having their origin in climatic conditions. On the Sanchi Tope is figured the sacred flowering Sal tree (beneath which Gautama Buddha died at Kasia), surmounted by two Chhatras, these, together with the tree, being adorned with garlands. Again, on the Great Tope at Buddha Gaya, B.C. 250, erected in front of the sacred Bo tree (Ficus religiosd), beneath which Gautama attained to the Buddhahood, are umbrellas hung with garlands. Also in a Thibetan picture of the death of Gautama given in Dr. Waddell's Buddhism of Thibet, we see a garlanded and festooned umbrella in the centre over Buddha, with attendants waving fly-flaps, and on the right a large standard fan.
So deeply rooted, indeed, is the reverence for the umbrella, and so completely in the minds of the populace are these objects identified with regal power, that, upon the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales (King Edward vn.) to India, it was deemed necessary for his Royal
1 This also is the number lining the shed in which the King of Dahomey holds his Court, the outer ones, white, those in the centre, marking the spot occupied by his Majesty, displaying the brightest hues.
34
FANS OF THE FAR EAST
Highness to appear beneath a golden umbrella on an elephant in order that his sovereign dignity might be demonstrated.
In the manuscript of Nieder Muenster of Ratisbon, now in the library at Munich, we find a curious blending of the tree and umbrella form, introduced as accessories in representations of the four evangelists, doubtless merely intended as conventional floral forms, but evidently the work of some monkish illuminator who had become influenced by Oriental mythology.
In Ratisbon, also, is an illumination of Christ bearing the cross, to one arm of which is attached a half-closed umbrella, reproduced in Curiositds Mystdrienses. ' Le pommeau,' says the chronicler, ' est orne" de ce que les Romains nomment Ombrellino (petit dais en parasol). S'il s'agissait a coup stir de ce baldaquin (qui est le propre de certains digni- taires) nous pourrions rappeler que ce mot figurait deja dans l'^tiquette imperiale avant Constantin.'1
On Attic and other Greek vases of the third and fourth century B.C., to quote Sir George Birdwood, it is often very difficult to distinguish the fan from the umbrella. 'Where it is distinctly an umbrella, it is either of the peaked Assyrian form, or of the dome- (' rondel ' of Valentijin, etc., and 'arundels' of Fryer) topped Indian form (chhatra); and when it is distinctly a fan, it is usually of the Indian type, determined by the fan palm frond and the peacock feather, and rarely of the Egyptian type determined by the date-palm and the ostrich feather.'
In the early Persian bas-reliefs, says Chardin in his Voyages, the kings of Persia are frequently represented in the act of mounting on horseback surrounded by beautiful slaves ; the duty of one being that of holding an umbrella over the head of the monarch. This, not only for the purpose of protecting the sovereign from the rays of the sun, but also to demonstrate his absolute right of life and death over both prisoners and subjects.
1 C. F. Gordon-Cumming, 'Pagodas, Aureoles, and Umbrellas,' English Illustrated Magazine, 1888.
35
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Umbrellas formed an important feature in the Greek Bacchic pro- cessions. Aristophanes refers to white umbrellas and baskets, signifying pomp and joy, as being intended to recall to men the acts of Ceres and Proserpine, and constantly borne by virgins at all religious ceremonials.
In a miniature in the Royal Library at Paris, of Sivaji on the march, a sayiban or sun-fan is seen, having an arrangement of drapery in form of a curtain or valance.1 Here we discover a point of contact between the fan and the umbrella, although it is probable that in this instance its use as a shade-giving instrument had not developed.
A much closer form-connection, however, between fan and umbrella is seen in the simple leaf section of the Palmyra palm, cut level at the top, used by the natives in most parts of India. This assumes exactly the shape of the pleated fan, the pleating formed by Nature's deft hands. The large Cingalese umbrella used by headsmen and at weddings is of the same shape, made of the young leaves of the talipot palm, often richly decorated with plaited patterns in various colours, and with mica inlay. Of similar form, also, is the sacred processional parasol of the Indian Mussulmans (Shia sect) and the Hindus.
The fan, therefore, must be considered as part of a continuous de- velopment from the umbrella symbol of might and power, employed equally in the East as in the West, and the infinitude of military and processional fan-like standards and sceptral fans, to the hand-fan and fly-whisk.
We discover a direct affinity between the hissing of the wind
1 In the Ayin Akbari, or Institutes of the Emperor Akbar, by Abdul Fazl, Akbar's great minister, the following enumeration is given of the ensigns of state ' which wise monarchs consider as marks of divine favour ' : — -
The Aurung or throne, the Chuttur or umbrella, the Sayiban or sun-fan, and the Kowkebah or stars in gold and other metals which are hung up in front of the palace ; and these four ensigns are used only by kings.
The Alum, the Chuttertowk, and the Tementowk, all varieties of standards of the highest dignity, appropriated solely by the king and his military officers of the highest rank. — Birdwood, Industrial Arts of India.
36
FANS OF THE FAR EAST
through the open metal mouth and silken bag of the Roman Dragon standard, and the beating of the wings of the Norse Raven, used for a similar purpose ; between the Assyrian disc standards with the divine archer standing on the sacred bull, and the cruciferal discs employed at a more recent date in Christian Church ceremonial ; between the chauri waved over the head of Krishna, and the wafting of divine influence by the angelic attendants upon the Saviour in early Christian missal-painting.
The alums or allums used in the Moharram procession in India are analogous to the standards used by the Greeks and Romans, and those figured on the gates of the Sanchi Tope, consisting not only of flags and banners, but of all sorts of devices in metal, raised on the top of a long staff and carried to battle.1
The Cingalese Sesata, a ceremonial fan for royal and religious use, or for attendance upon great personages, consists of an em- broidered cloth disc, or talipot leaf, decorated with images of the sun, moon, etc., with mica and other materials introduced, mounted on a lacquered staff. Tenants of the first rank attend the Disvata (lord chief) on journeys, convey his orders, carrying the great banner, state umbrella, and Sesata.2 A smaller disc-fan, the disc covered with crimson velvet, the handle about fifteen inches long, of carved ivory, richly inlaid, occurs in the Louvre.
1 Hon. Wilbraham Egerton, Handbook of Indian Arms. - Coomaraswarmy, Mediozval Sinhalese Art.
37
I
CINGALESE SESATA
(Made of the leaf of the talipot palm, enriched with plates of mica, the handle lacquered wood; length, including handle, 7 feet.)
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The royal standard, banner, or ensign, employed in India, composed of
peacocks' feathers, is illustrated in a MS. copy of the Akbar-Namah (c. 1597),
the form being circular, and also that of a somewhat elongated semicircle. The fly-flap, chowr, chowrie, chourie, chaurie, is next in dignity to
the umbrella, and was in the first instance devoted to the service of the gods. On a bas-relief of the pagoda of Elephanta, described by the Orientalist Langl^s in his History of Hindostan, a servant is seen behind Brahma and Indra holding in each hand chauries or fly-whisks. In the India Museum is a charming little chaurie with silver handle and ribbons of silver gauze tipped with red silk, used by Jains to drive away insects from their idol without destroying them.
Chauries are formed of various materials — of ivory, the strips of which are sometimes cut to incredible fineness for such a substance ; in these cases the handles are formed of the same material, richly carved — of the bushy tail of the
Himalayan yak, both black and white, the handles
either of metal, ivory, or wood — of sandalwood,
also cut into the finest possible strips, the handles
richly carved ; the waving of these chauries
emitting a fine fragrance — of the stripped quills
of the larger birds, more generally the peacock —
of horse-hair and the various grasses. The handles
were often formed of the horns of various
animals ; an example occurs in the Horniman
Museum, in which instance it is the antelope.
The chaurie from the tail of the yak was in
ancient India fixed upon a gold or ornamented
shaft between the ears of the war-horse, like the
plume of the war-horse of chivalry ; the banner or banneret, with the
38
FLY-WHISK
(From a painting on talc. Madras. Nineteenth century.)
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
device of the chief, rose at the back of the car. ' The waving chaurie on the steed's broad brow points backwards, motionless as a picture.' '
This, it will be seen, is in strict conformity to the usage of the ancient Egyptians, who employed the tall fan emblem in a precisely similar way ; these proud plumes serving a double purpose — an orna- mental, and, in the case of Egypt, even an heraldic purpose, and also the purely utilitarian one of affording the animal some relief from fly pests.
The peacock has ever been regarded as a sacred bird, both by the peoples of the East and the West. The Greek fable of Argus the hundred-eyed, the sleepless guardian of Io, serves to connect the idea of extreme vigilance with that of true kingship, i.e. the universal preserver and father of the people. The peacock therefore presented a double sig- nificance to the minds of the Hindu peoples ; it expressed the vigilance of kingship together with its magnificence. The peacock feather emblem of royalty is the sign or insignia of the king's high office, and the principal evidence of his sovereignty : wherever a king appears ^^Wfifjtoj he is accompanied by an attendant bearing this emblem, \0^Hm which appears in all pictorial or other representations of Wj^^
royalty. y0ftXm
It was, doubtless, in the first instance a fly-flap, and is fS[
either composed entirely of feathers, or, it consists of a bunch fc^d
of feathers enclosed two-thirds of the distance in a silver jS
casing, usually ornamented with an imbricated pattern ; the EW
handle also of silver. Several examples of this object appear l]
in the India Museum, and numberless representations occur emblem of
ROYALTY
in sculpture, illumination, embroidery, etc. (From™ illumination of
1 a Court reception by
The poet Valmiki tells of the sumptuous sceptre, studded *<^°<°^ with jewels, prepared for the sacrifices to Rama — a magnificent fan with a radiant garland resembling the full moon in the clear night sky.
1 Hindu Theatre.
39
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The word punkha, or pankha, from pankh, a feather, a bird, is a generic term applied in India to all fans, pankhi meaning a small fan. This derivation serves as an indication of the early use of the plumed fan in India, which divides honours with the palm-leaf fan in point of antiquity, and doubtless also as suggesting a similarity between the beating of a bird's wings and the movement of the fan.
The earliest plumed fans probably consisted of a pair of complete wings set shoulder to shoulder, resembling the caduceus of Mercury, which was regarded as a symbol of happiness, peace, and concord, the wings expressing diligence.
Feather-fans assume all manner of shapes, as the large round banner- fans already referred to ; the familiar crescent-like form with a short
0. handle set horizontally at its base ;
and the various hand-screens, these either composed entirely of pea-
_ %f cocks' feathers, the breast and
if"
neck feathers forming a pattern
in the centre, with a border of tail feathers ; or, the centre formed of plaited pith and cane of various colours, beetles' wings, etc., with the border again of feathers ; the handles being of cane or wood, or of wood covered with cane strippings or other material.
In Persia and Arabia, from the first centuries of our era, fans were made of ostrich feathers, many being ornamented with that form of in- scription which is such a leading feature of the decorative art of these countries.
The crescent-shaped hand-fan also dates from a very early period.
In its primitive form, it is seen in the painted decoration of the Bud-
40
ROYAL STANDARDS
(From a MS. copy of the Akbar-Namah. Sixteenth century.)
L<uyc /{and Fan of 'Sandalwood, Indian.. J '8 t>KCent.
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HAND-FAN (From the cave paintings at Ajanta.)
dhist cave-temples of Ajanta (first century B.C. to eighth century A.D.), the example given being probably ornamented with strips or panels of mica, the constructional portion of cane or pith.
A variant of this form, still more simple in its construction, is seen in one of the sculptured roundels of the Buddhist tope at Amaravati, Southern India, circa second century a.d. ; an attendant upon a great personage waves a circular fan, having the handle stretched across the face,
with a circular opening near the lower edge to enable the handle to be gripped. All the fore- going types obtain at the present day, and are as modern as they are ancient.
The flag form of fan is, if possible, a still more remarkable instance of the persistence of certain decorative motifs throughout long periods of the world's history. This type, again, is in use at the present day — the page of examples illustrated are of the mid-nineteenth century — this identical form appears in the wall-paintings at Ajanta ; : it is also seen in Egyptian and Assyrian sculptured reliefs ; it was employed by the Copts from the third to the sixth century, and earlier in Arabia ; it was in general use in Italy during the period of the Renaissance. There can be no possibility of doubt that this form of fan was common to the whole of the East and to a greater portion of the West, and has endured throughout the centuries.
PLAITED GRASS-FAN (From the Amaravati Tope.)
These fans are of two kinds — rigid and flexible ; in <F'
FLAG-FAN rom the cave paintings
::t Ajanta.)
1 In the painting supposed to represent an Iranian Embassy of Khosru II. of Persia to Pulikesi II., both flag-fan, long-handled pankha, and fly-flap appear. F 41
HISTORY OF THE FAN
both instances they are invariably plaited, the material being stripped
palm, bamboo, ivory, peacock quills, etc. The rigid variety is often placed
loose in the handle, to allow of its being swung round and round like
a policeman's rattle. See illustration opposite.
The hatchet or halberd shape is a development of the flag form, and
varies from the simple blade to that of a highly ornamental shape. The
material is silk, velvet, cloth or other tissue, often richly embroidered
with gold and silver thread, spangles,
beetles' wings, etc., with a fringe
of either silver tinsel or peacocks'
feathers ; the handles being of wood,
cane, or silver. These are at present
largely made at Delhi.
Occasionally the fan is entirely
formed of threaded glass beads of
various colours forming a pattern
upon a wire framework, with a fringe
of tinsel, the handle also overlaid
with beads.
The primitive palm-fan occurs on
the oldest Hindostani bas-reliefs, and
is described by the poets. This
primeval fan still forms part of the
attire of certain Buddhist priests in
Siam, and from it they take their
name of ' Talapoins ' ; the fan's name
being ' talapat,' or 'palm-tree-leaf in
the Siamese language.
This form (the reversed heart) is common to both the smaller hand-fans
and the larger ceremonial and processional fans. The natural palm-leaf
42
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
is employed, trimmed to the required shape, and used either plain, or painted in brilliant colours, or forming a base for a covering of em- broidery, feathers or stuffs, as in the example from Moorshedabad (illustrated), which is of velvet, embroidered with silver.
The lateral form, in which the leaf is set sidewise on the stem, follows the same principle of decorative development. It is used plain, painted, inlaid with talc as in the example illustrated, is embroidered with silk, spangles, beetles' wings, etc. ; it also supplies the shape or decorative motif for fans of a different material, as in the instance of the four long - handled fans, forming portion of the Burmese regalia, obtained from Mandalay in 1885, examples of a barbaric splendour only to be found in the gorgeous East. These are of gold, jewelled with rubies and the ' nan-ratan ' or nine stone, the handles overlaid with gold and also jewelled.
Amongst fans formed of the more precious materials is a disc-shaped fan of gold, set with cabochon sapphires, an offering dedicated by Klrti Sri to the 'Tooth relic.'1 Figured in Medieval Sinhalese Art, A. K. Coom- araswarmy.
In the collection of the Baroness Salomon de Rothschild at Paris is a fan of jade, richly studded with jewels.
FAN OF GOLD (Forming portion of the Burmese Regalia. India Museum.)
1 The Tooth relic of Buddha, brought by a Brahman princess from Kalinga in A.D. 313, and since rendered the highest honours.
43
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Fans are also made of the sweet-scented Khaskhas root {Andropogon muricatus), and as these are generally used after being wetted, they impart to the air a cool fragrance ; they are often highly ornamented with gold and silver spangles, gold thread, tinsel, beetles' wings, etc., and occasionally provided with ivory handles. A pretty example occurs at Kew, where there is an excellent collection of fans made of the various vegetable sub- stances. Fans of talc, decorated with exquisite illumination, were made at Tanjore during the eighteenth century. Specimens occur in the India Museum, South Kensington.
PORTION OF AN EMBROIDERED MUSLIN NAPKIN. (Chamba. Nineteenth century.)
Representations of the fan are of constant occurrence in Indian work, both illumination, embroidery, sculpture, and other material. On a curiously primitive embroidered napkin from Chamba, we are introduced to the worship of a Hindu deity — a king and queen are kneeling under a palm-tree, the god Ganesh in the distance with flag-fan ; an attendant bears the peacock feather emblem of royalty, a second attendant waves a large heart-shaped fan. On a small mat or pad of enamelled leather (Hyderabad, nineteenth century), we see a whimsical combination of Krishna and his damsels forming the similitude of an elephant, the umbrella, pankha, and two fly-flappers being in evidence.
44
FANS OF THE FAR EAST
A beautiful illumination from a MS. copy of the Akbar-Namah, above quoted, shows a prince seated upon his throne in the act of receiving offerings ; an attendant waves a fly-flap behind the throne, a second attendant bears one of the large pankhas beautifully embroidered in gold and colours.
We are also in another illumination introduced to a beautiful flowered parterre, in which a Mongol princess is seated before a rippling fountain ; attendants wait upon her with fruits, vases containing unguents, spices, etc. ; behind, a female attendant waves the fly-flap.
In the decoration of the entrance gate of the temple at Ajmir, a prince appears in a howdah on the back of an elephant, an attendant sits behind waving a fly-flap, a second flabellifer is seated on the head of the animal ; the prince himself holds a small fan in his hand, an attendant on foot bears the pankha, and another the insignia of royalty.
Fair and delicate though these creations of Eastern ingenuity may be, the genius of Oriental imagery and fancy has discovered for us a still more delicate and effective instrument — a Sanskrit poet recounts a grace- ful fable of a princess of extreme beauty, who, although constantly attending and fanning the divine fire with a view to increasing the pros- perity of her father, never succeeded in producing a flame save by the breath of her charming lips.
45
HISTORY OF THE FAN
FANS OF THE FAR EAST— Continued
CHINA
CHINESE authorities are at variance concerning the in- vention of the fan, which has been attributed to the Emperor Hsien Yuan, b.c. 2697 ; to the Emperor Shun, B.C. 2255, and to the first ruler of the Chou dynasty,
B.C. 1 122.
According to a Chinese legend, it had its origin
at the Feast of Lanterns, where, on an occasion when
the heat became particularly oppressive, the beautiful
daughter of a mandarin took off her mask, and agitated
it so as to fan the air into a gentle breeze ; the rest of
the fair revellers were so much struck with the grace of
the motion that they one and all let fall their masks
and followed the example of the mandarin's daughter.
The earliest fans were of the dyed feathers of various
birds, and those of the peacock. We have an account
of a present of two fans of feathers of ' tsio rouge,'
offered to the Emperor Tchao-wang of the Chou dynasty, b.c. 1052, by
the King of Thou-sieou, and it is affirmed in the ' Tchdou-li ' that one
of the chariots of the empress carried a feather-fan for the purpose of
keeping the wheels free from dust.
The poet Thou-fou, in the ' Song of Autumn,' refers to fans of
pheasants' feathers as in royal use. The Emperor Kao-Tsong, of the
Chang dynasty, 1323- 1266 B.C., having heard the cry of the pheasant,
an omen of good luck, resolved thenceforth to use only fans composed
of the tail feathers of this bird.
46
CIRCULAR FAN
'Like the Moon'
borne by the guard of an
Imperial concubine.
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
These have continued in the service of royalty to a late period. A wing-shaped example, set laterally in a red lacquered handle, appearing in the hand of an attendant, in a fine painted roll, by Ch' in Ying of the Ming dynasty, illustrating the occupations of Court ladies, the larger feathers numbering seven, this being the sacred number composing the fan, which is the attribute of Chung-li Ch'uan, one of the eight Taoist Immortals, the seven broad feathers corresponding to the constellation of seven stars on the left of the moon (Great Bear), the seat in the Taoist heavens of their supreme deity, Shang Ti, round whom all the other star gods circulate in homage. This fan is illustrated on the large lacquered screen at the Victoria and Albert Museum, representing the Taoist Genii from a painted roll
OF MING DYNASTY
worshipping the god of Longevity, and (»*i*ii— «o constantly figures in pictorial and other representa- tions.
Similar fans with several rows of pointed feathers appear in painted and decorative work ; a curious example being seen in a large drawing from Tonkin (Louvre). The outer row of feathers, white and pale blue ; the second, yellow ; the third, those of the pea- cock; the body of the fan, green, red, white, and blue.
In the lacquered screen above referred to, a large fan of this character is waved over the head of one of the devotees riding aloft on a cloud, wending his way towards the mountain paradise, the home of the God. The feather-fan is one of the chief attributes of Hsi Wang Mu, the
47
FAN.\OF HSI WANG MU
(From a Japanese painting*
British Museum.)
HISTORY OF THE FAN
famed Queen of the Genii (Royal Mother of the West), whose dwelling was a mountain palace in Central Asia, where she held Court with her fairy legions and received the great Taoist Rishis and certain favoured mortals, and whose amours with the Han Emperor Wu Ti have given much occupation for both author and artist.1
Her fan is borne by one of her four handmaidens, who, like the D€va Kings of Mount Sumeru, are severally related to the four points of the compass. It assumes various shapes, as that of a wing, in the
painting by a pupil of Itcho riu of the Japanese popular school, British Museum, 1722; a bunch of long pointed plumes set in a bamboo handle, in the painting (Chinese School of Japan, British Museum, 778), in which a young girl in deer-skin, standing beneath the sacred peach-tree of the Immortals, offers the fruit to the goddess who, with her attendant bearing the fan, appears upon a cloud above the waves.
The queen is also represented with the large pear-shaped screen, as in the painting of the same school, British Museum, 1022, the screen decorated with the sun, moon, and clouds. In the painting previously referred to (No. 1722), the goddess herself holds a smaller pear-shaped screen. Each of the 'fore-mentioned paintings are Japanese, but the fan forms are, unquestionably, taken from older Chinese originals.
The earliest illustrations, however, of this personage and her fan,
1 Anderson, B.Af. Catalogue, p. t2I. 48
WHITE PLUMED FAN OF HSI WANG MU (From a painting of the Chinese School of Japan. British Museum.)
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and probably the oldest representations of fans in Chinese art, are those of the sculptures of the Han dynasty, b.c. 206 — a.d. 25. In these, Hsi-wang Mu, wearing a coroneted hat, is attended by ladies carrying cup, mirror, and fan. On the same relief the Emperor Mu Wang of the Chou dynasty, B.C. 1001, is attended by a servitor with fan and towel or handkerchief. In the frieze forming the lower part of the relief, we see the ' Chariot of the Sage ' preceded by two men on foot, with staves and fans.
PEAR-SHAPED SCREENS (Ftom paintings in the British Museum.)
On another of these reliefs, representing the discovery of one of the sacred bronze tripods, the ancient palladia of the kingdom, the two com- missioners deputed by the Emperor to superintend its recovery from the river are attended by servitors bearing fans. These are the small hand- screens (pien-mien) described by M. Rondot as being larger in the upper part, their shape approaching that of a reversed trapezium with the angles
rounded off.
g 49
HISTORY OF THE FAN
This same author refers to four screens of white jade (regarded by the Chinese as the most precious of precious stones), the handles of an odoriferous amber, that were offered by the Emperor Chun-Hi of the Southern Sung dynasty, 1174-1190, to his Empress. At this time the screens were ornamented with incrustation and inscription, which was much esteemed, and this author quotes a curious passage from the Annals 0/ the Thsi to the effect that Wang-sun-pen, of Kin-ling, represented in the space of a few inches a perspective view of rivers, mountains, valleys, and plains, stretching over a thousand miles of land. These screen pictures are referred to in the Kit yii foufiu, an illustrated catalogue of ancient jade, in one hundred books, compiled in 11 76 by an imperial commission headed by Lung Ta-Yuan, President of the Board of Rites.
The small hand-screens assume a variety of forms — circular, pear- shaped, heart-shaped, etc., and are made of various materials, as — (1) The natural palm leaf, seen in the Chinese painting, British Museum, 37. (2) The palm leaf cut to various shapes, with a bamboo handle running up the middle, as in the Japanese example given on page 61. (3) Of bamboo ; from Chinese records we learn that on the fifth day of the fifth month of the year corresponding to our 219, the Emperor presented to the members of the Imperial Academy a fan of bamboo, carved and painted blue. There is also a record of an existing fan of oblong form, made of bamboo leaf, ornamented with bulrushes, an inscription on the field of the fan. This dates from the sixth century a.d. (4) Of the turtle shell : the two portions held together with metal plates, with a wooden or other handle, examples of which occur in the Musde Guimet, Paris. (5) Of silk stretched upon a frame, with painted or other decoration, as in the two charming examples illustrated from the collection of Mr. W. Crewdson. Both front and reverse are given : the latter decorated in that system of feather-work much affected by the Chinese, and in which they display great skill. The feathers are usually the turquoise tinted plumes of the kingfisher : in the present
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
instance the design is alternated by an imbrication of peacocks' feathers. The handles are of carved ivory.
There are also the cockade screens, usually of ivory or sandal- wood.
Representations of the earlier large ceremonial banner screens appear on a carved pedestal of a Buddhist image, Northern Wei dynasty, a.d. 524 ; these are oval in form, and are seen in both sculptured and painted representations down to recent times.
In the Musde Guimet in Paris is a large fan of red lacquer framework (reversed heart shape) enclosing a series of metal ribs through which the wind plays ; in the centre are painted dragons.
Among the painted representations in the India Museum, of objects from the Summer Palace at Pekin, is a circular screen, ' like the moon,' borne by the guard of an imperial concubine. See illustration, p. 46.
A favourite device for the decoration of these larger screens is that of the fabled Phoenix, the Ho bird of the Japanese. This is seen in the paint- ing of the Chinese school of Japan, British Museum, 822, in which one of the two attendants on a Chinese Emperor carries a long oval screen bordered with peacocks' feathers, and ornamented with two Phoenixes.1
We therefore perceive that the ceremonies and customs relating to the fan, no less than the various forms which this instrument assumed, were practically identical with the ancient peoples of the East and West ; — the same order of development, having its origin in the natural suggestion afforded by the wings of birds and of the broader leaved plants ; the fans of the Han dynasty reliefs, their exact counterpart being found in Egypt and Assyria ; the rigid hand-screens corresponding to those tabellae which the Romans derived from the Greeks, who in turn received them
1 In the romance of Amadis of Gaul it will be remembered that Appolidon gathered up the superb purple and gold feathers of the Phcenix which had remained long enough in the island to change its plumage, to make a fan ornamented with a diamond and carbuncle, as a present from Amadis to Oriane on arriving at the island.
51
HISTORY OF THE FAN
from the peoples of Asia Minor, and which, doubtless, had their origin in the more remote East ; the employment of the fan in both religious and civil ceremonial and in war.1
Among the Bat Bu'u (eight precious things) carried at the end of staves by the inhabitants of Annam in their ceremonial processions, is a fan (Quat) symbolising the graceful perfection of the form of woman, and the light breeze that tempers the heat of the summer sun.2 These Bat Bu'u are made in three ways —
i. Of carved wood lacquered and gilt.
2. Of tin or pewter.
3. In the form of transparencies to be lighted from within.
A huge wooden fan is carried as part of the insignia of a mandarin's procession.3
The invention of the folding-fan is generally credited to the ingenious little inhabitants of the land of the rising sun ; its date, however, as well as its precise character, is impossible to determine with anything ap- proaching to accuracy. Tradition says that it was designed by an artist who lived in the reign of the Emperor Jen-ji, about 670 a.d., and was formed upon the principle of the construction of a bat's wing, this being in conformity with the general usage of Japanese designers, who derived their artistic motifs from natural constructive forms. The date of its intro- duction into China is also a matter of considerable uncertainty : we have a reference to it in a Chinese work of the date 960, to the effect that the tsin-theou-chen, or folding-fan, was introduced by Tchang-ping-hai, and was supposed to be offered as a tribute by the barbarians of the south- east, who came, holding in their hands the pleated fan, which occasioned much laughter and ridicule. All Chinese authors agree, however, that
1 M. Rondot quotes a passage from a native authority stating that the Chinese general, Tchou-ko-liang, commanded his three army corps holding a fan of white plumes.
2 G. Dumoutier, Les Symboles, les Emblemes et les Aaessoires du culte chez les Annamites, pp. 116-18.
3 H. A. Giles, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, p. 64, note 13.
52
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
it was the invention of foreigners, i.e. the Japanese, who, together with the Tartars, possessed folding-fans before they were known in China.1
M. Rondot records the fact that at first, only courtesans made use of folding-fans, honest women carried round screens.2
Since the appearance of the folding-fan, various materials have been pressed into its service, including ivory, tortoise-shell, lacquer, mother of pearl, the various woods — especially sandalwood, the more precious metals, silk, skin, and paper.
No nation possesses a keener appreciation of ivory as a vehicle for artistic expression than the Chinese, whose carved balls in concentric spheres of open work are the wonder of western peoples. Ivory fans date from a very remote period, it is believed as early as 990 B.C., and are marvels of patient ingenuity.
The Imperial Ivory Works within the palace at Peking was founded toward the close of the seventeenth century, and became the centre for the best production in this delicate material.
Ivory fans are either of pierced fiat open work, or elaborately carved with subjects, the backgrounds of which are formed by delicate ribbing, imparting a lightness and softness to the fan not obtainable by any other means. An extraordinarily skilful example is the cockade-fan in the Wyatt collection at South Kensington ; this, together with several others in the same collection, have monograms in cursive European characters, and were executed to the order of Europeans. In each instance the blades are connected by means of a ribbon running through the whole. One
1 The traditional account is here given — some explanation of the absence of definite dates may be found in the hypothesis that there were always folding-fans — that the device of pleating a piece of paper or other material is so simple that it might occur to the youngest child. As a matter of fact, Nature herself invented the folded fan, as she may be said to suggest every invention. The palmetto leaf in its undeveloped shape is pleated and packed as neatly and completely as any folding-fan ever made.
2 This circumstance of the introduction of a new fashion by courtesans finds a curious parallel in Europe. Stow's Chronicle, Howes's edit., 1632, says: 'Womens Maskes, Buskes, Muffes, Fanns, Perewigs, and Bodkins were first devised (sic) and used in Italy by Curtezans, and there received of the best sort for gallant ornaments, and from thence they came to England, about the time of the massacre of Paris.'
53
HISTORY OF THE FAN
example only of these fans is given; that bearing the word 'Angela' — fitting name of the gentle lady whose memory is revered wherever the English language is spoken.
Tortoise-shell is carved with the same consummate skill as ivory, and on the same principle of delicate piercing and ribbing. Two such fans occur in the Wyatt collection, profusely decorated in relief with figures of horsemen, buildings, boats, and flowers. The material, which is softened both by warm water and dry heat, is obtained from the loggerhead turtle of the Malay Archipelago and Indian Ocean, and imported to Canton, a centre both for tortoise-shell and ivory workers. An extremely effective and picturesque fan is that in the same collection, formed of the feathers of the Argus pheasant, cut short to the fan shape, the sticks of carved tortoise-shell. In this the colours of the feathers harmonise extremely well with the translucent red brown of the tortoise-shell.
This material is also lacquered, one of the earliest and most prized of the Chinese arts, and the technique of which is fully described in the Ko ku yao Inn, a. learned work on antiquities published in the reign of Hung Wu, the founder of the Ming dynasty, 1387. This substance is obtained from the lac-tree {Rhus vemiciferd), cultivated for the purpose throughout Central and Southern China. The tree exudes a resinous sap that becomes black upon its exposure to the air, the sap being extracted from the tree at night, during the summer months, and dried, ground, and strained through hempen cloth to an evenly flowing liquid, which is applied by the brush.
Gold plays an important part both in the composition of the lacquer itself, to which it imparts a richness and pellucidity which is extremely beautiful, and also in its subsequent decoration. The fan and case of Canton lacquer in the Wyatt collection are richly decorated with panels of buildings and gardens, on a diapered background, overlaid with flowers, butterflies, and other devices, and are excellent examples of Chinese gold
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lacquer, an art which, although originating in China, has been somewhat neglected, and has, at a later period, been brought by the Japanese to a greater perfection than the Chinese have at any time attained.
Sandalwood is largely employed for fans, on account of its light- ness, the ease with which it is worked, and also its fine aroma. The tree is indigenous to India, and is imported by the Chinese, who employ it for a variety of purposes, including the perfumed joss-sticks which are com- mon throughout the East. These fans are worked on the same principle of flat piercing as those of ivory. They are also carved in relief, but can scarcely be said to rival the last-named substance with its delicate variety of translucent softness. The large fan at South Kensington is a good example.
Mother of pearl is a favourite material for fan-sticks on account of its beautiful play of iridescent colour. A number of fans of Chinese work- manship, both of mother of pearl and ivory, have found their way to Europe and have been remounted. Such a fan is that in the Wyatt col- lection with a subject finely painted on chicken skin by Eugene Andrd.
Bamboo has already been referred to as in early use. It is ex- tensively employed for the cheaper fans on account of its durability as well as cheapness. The number of ribs vary from sixteen to thirty-six; the former may be regarded as the standard number.
The art of filigree is practised by the Chinese with the most consum- mate skill; it is occasionally in gold, but more often in silver gilt, the gilding being employed for the double purpose of preventing tarnishing and for decorative effect. Filigree work is often enriched by means of inlay, either enamel, or the turquoise feathers of the kingfisher, which latter, however, are merely gummed on the surface of the metal, and, as a consequence, are wanting in durability.
Enamelling has been practised in western Asia from a very early period, i.e. previous to the Christian era, and is believed to have reached
55
HISTORY OF THE FAN
China about the thirteenth century. There are two kinds, both accom- plished by the process known as incrustation — cloisonne, in which the pattern is raised on the surface of the metal by soldering on to it metal or wire strips of copper, silver, or gold, thus forming a series of cells or cloisons ; and champleve, in which the cell-walls enclosing the pattern are either modelled and cast, or cut and hollowed out of the metal itself by means of graving tools : in both, the pattern is filled in with enamel.
Of the colours, there are two well-contrasted shades of blue — a dark tint made from cobalt and resembling the lapis-lazuli tone, and a light sky blue or turquoise; several greens made from copper, a dark coral red, a fine yellow, black, and white.
Chinese enamels are usually fired in the open courtyard, protected only by a primitive cover of iron network, the charcoal fire being regu- lated by a number of men standing round with large fans in their hands.1
Of the interesting fans in which the combined arts of filigree and enamel are employed we give a charming example from the Wyatt collection at South Kensington. In this, the effective colour scheme is that of the two blues and gold ; the design being a conventional rendering of a Phoenix and foliage. In the colour plate given of the fan in the collection of Mr. M. Tomkinson, the leaf has a large cartouche in the centre representing a Chinese garden, with the hostess welcoming a visitor who has arrived on horseback, the servant bringing tea. On either side are small medal- lions of a sun-dial and a broken column, evidently introduced to the order of a European patron.
Of the familiar class of fans having large compositions of figures of which the heads are of applied ivory, painted, the costumes of silk appliqud, the sticks of ivory elaborately carved, the example illustrated from the collection of Mr. Burdett-Coutts belonged to a mandarin of the first rank. A beautiful example was formerly in the possession of
1 S. W. Bushell, Chinese Art. 56
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H.I.M. the Empress Eugdnie,1 the stick of sandalwood. The brins of these fans, twelve in number, are occasionally varied, as follows: — Two of white ivory, pierced and carved ; two of silver filigree and enamel ; two of ivory, pierced and carved, coloured scarlet ; two of tor- toise-shell, carved and pierced ; two of engraved white pearl ; and two of gilt filigree enamel. The panaches of gilt filigree, with silver dragons in relief. An example occurs in the collection of Mr. Messel, another was in the possession of the late Mr. R. W. Edis.
Almost every important city or district in China has its characteristic fan — something distinctive in the make, colour, or ornamentation of the folding-fan, which is the fan par excellence in the Chinese mind. The convenience of this fan will at once be apparent — it occupies but little space, it may, when not in use, be stuck in the high boot of the full- dressed Chinaman, or in the ample folds of his dress.
These fans are made to suit every class of society from mandarin to peasant — to suit the changing seasons, in different sizes in proportion to the quantity of breeze required. The Son of Heaven, during the sultry summer months, employs fans of feathers, and during winter of silk. Fashion, however, lays down inexorable laws as to the time and period of their use, and to be seen with a fan too early or too late in the year is considered as mauvais ton. A poem by Ow-Yang Hisu informs us that ' In the tenth moon the people of the capital turn to their warm fans.'
During the warm weather the fan forms part of the ceremony of tea-drinking ; the host takes his fan as soon as tea is drunk, and, bowing to the company, says, ' Thsing-chen ' (I invite you to fan yourselves); each guest immediately using his fan with great gravity and modesty. It is considered a breach of etiquette to be without a fan on such an occasion, or to refrain from its use.2
1 Her Imperial Majesty's collection of fans has for some time been dispersed.
2 Abel Remusat, Melanges posthumcs d'histoire et de littirature, quoted by G. Ashdown Audsley.
h 57
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The Chinese have exhausted every species of ingenuity in the con- struction of fans of an outre" character. The ' broken fan,' a curious trick, is to all intents and purposes a simple folding-fan, and opened from left to right presents no feature uncommon. On being opened to the reverse, the whole fan appears to fall to pieces, each bone, with the part attached, being separated from the other as though the connecting strings were broken : the principle is extremely simple, but the effect is surprising.
A fan which has been styled the ' impracticable,' is of circular form, the radiants of ivory, tortoise-shell, sandalwood, or metal filigree, per- forated to such a degree as to render it useless as a means of disturbing the air. These are elaborately carved with figures, scroll-work, and other designs, or with birds, flowers, etc., in silver gilt filigree.
The ' double-entente ' fan, opened in the ordinary manner, exhibits some harmless motif such as a flower, bird, or landscape ; opened the reverse way, it discloses a ribald sketch that would entail severe penalties on its maker if discovered. The Peking variety shows two such pictures which are not seen when the fan is opened, but are disclosed by turning back the two end ribs of the fan.
The 'dagger-fan' is an invention of the Japanese, its importation into China being strictly forbidden. In its outward appearance it is sufficiently harmless, being apparently an ordinary lacquered folding-fan : in reality it is a sheath containing a deadly blade, short and sharp, resembling a small Malay kris (see illustration facing page 60). These dagger or stiletto fans are by no means confined to the East ; in the British Museum is a print of an Italian stiletto concealed in a case made in imitation of a fan ; the panaches of ivory, engraved with Italian arabesques.
Inscription fans are common, and exhibit an endless variety of devices. Some are literary tours de force, the most famous being that associated with the Emperor Chien WSn, of the Liang dynasty, a.d. 550,
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and said to be the composition of the monarch himself. This consists of a couplet of eight characters written in the eight corners of an octagon fan. On beginning at any one of the eight characters and reading round the way of the sun, it forms a couplet of perfect sense and rhythm.
A story is told of a favourite of the Emperor Ch'eng Ti of the Han dynasty, B.C. 32, whose name was Pan, and who for some time had been a confidante of his Majesty and the Queen of the Imperial Seraglio. Having persuaded herself that something more than an ordinary attach- ment of the hour existed between herself and the ' Son of Heaven,' finding her influence on the wane and being unable to conceal any longer her mortification, grief, and despair, she forwarded to the Emperor a circular screen-fan, upon which were inscribed the following lines express- ing the contrast between the summer of her reciprocated love and the autumn of her desertion : —
' O fair white silk, fresh from the weaver's loom, Clear as the frost, bright as the winter snow — See, friendship fashions out of thee a fan : Round as the round moon shines in heaven above ; At home, abroad, a close companion thou ; Stirring at every move the grateful gale, And yet I fear, ah me ! that autumn chills Cooling the dying summer's torrid rage, Will see thee laid neglected on the shelf, All thought of bygone days, bygone like them.'1
From this period, in China, a deserted wife has been called an autumn fan.
1 H. A. Giles, 'Chinese Fans,' Fraser's Magazine, May 1879.
59
HISTORY OF THE FAN
FANS OF THE FAR EAST— Continued
JAPAN
THE fan is regarded by the Japanese as an emblem of life, that widens and expands as the sticks radiate from the rivet or starting-point, and for this reason is selected for the new-year's gift.1 It enters into almost every affair of the life of the people, from Emperor to peasant ; friends greet each other with a wave of the fan ; it is one of the gifts which the bride takes with her to her husband's house ; it is presented to the youth on the attainment of his majority ; 2 it is used by jugglers in feats of skill, by the umpires of wrestling matches as signal, by singers to modulate their voices ; the condemned man marches to the scaffold fan in hand ; the executioner does not relinquish his fan during the performance of his duty.
The early history of the fan in the country of Dai Nippon is substan- tially the same as in all the countries of the far and nearer East, and presents us with the same order of development, the earliest being formed of the primitive palm leaf, or of feathers. We have, in the story of ' The Tengus ' a description of the Dai or Master Tengu, who wears a long
1 Kaname, the rock which holds the earth together and keeps it quiet, means the rivet of a fan. The great earthquake fish Namazu has the Giant Kashima for keeper, who was charged to subdue the eastern part of the world, and accomplished this feat by running his sword through the earth. In time the sword hardened into stone and was named Kaname (rivet). When Namazu becomes too violent and shakes the earth, Kashima jumps upon him with the rock Kaname.
* 'Upon a male child being presented at his birth to the temple of his father's particular deity, he receives, amongst other gifts, two fans, while a girl receives a cake of pomade, which brings good looks.'
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FEATHER-FAN (From a Japanese painting. British Museum.)
grey beard down to his girdle, moustaches to his chin, and carries in his left
hand as a sign of his rank a fan made of seven wide feathers pointed at the
tip : this he waves while singing a song,
doubtless for the purpose of modulating his
voice. The fan is identical in form with
that of Chung-li Ch'uan, one of the eight
Taoist immortals, referred to on page 47. The rigid screens received from China
at the close of the sixth century are referred
to in the earlier part of this chapter, under
China. Those in use in Japan present no
material difference to the Chinese except in
the details of their decorative significance.
The larger screens were employed both in
civil and religious ceremonial, as war standards, and waved by servants in attendance upon royal and distinguished personages. These latter denoted the rank of the owner, the material being of silk or other fabric stretched over a wooden framework, painted or other- wise decorated, the forms extremely varied, but more usually those of the circle, oval, or pear. The pear-shaped hand-screen is seen in the hands of Hotei, the fat god of prosperity, and of Juro, the god of longevity, as an invariable accompaniment of those divinities. An example is given from a portrait of Lu T'ung-pin, a Taorist Rishi of the eighth century, by Go-gaku, nineteenth century,
This has a red tassel or tail at the end of the 61
HAND-SCREEN, BAMBOO HANDLE (From a Japanese painting. British Museum.)
British Museum, 640.
HISTORY OF THE FAN
fan, a kind of combination of fan and fly-whip. A similar fan appears in a painting of the Caligraphic school, British Museum, 1617. This fan is of Chinese origin, and is constantly represented in the art of that country.
Fly-whips were also used. Of the representations of the sixteen Arhats (Buddhist divinities) given in the ' Butsu zo dzu-i,' three hold fly-whips (futsujin) in their hands. This instrument is also seen in the right hand of Vimalakirrti, an Indian priest, in the painting on silk attributed to Shingetsu, Sesshiu school, fifteenth century, British Museum collection.
The fly-whip or chasse-mouche was also used by generals while on horseback, this being made of strips of tough paper suspended from a lacquered handle mounted with bronze.
A list of the more important varieties of Japanese fans, together with the dates of their introduction, as given by native authorities, will probably be of service.
Rigid fans or hand-screens, introduced from China, end of sixth century a.d.
Folding-fans (bamboo), invented by the Japanese, 668-671 a.d.
Gumbai Uchiwa, flat iron battle-fans, eleventh century.
Gun Sen, folding iron battle-fans, twelfth century.
Hi ogi, court-fans, eleventh century.
Mai ogi, dancing-fans, beginning of seventeenth century.
Rikiu ogi, tea-fans,
Water-fans for kitchen use, eighteenth century.
The invention of the folding-fan has already been referred to. Its
earliest form is the Komori (bat), so named from the supposition of the wing
of this animal suggesting the principle of its construction. It is formed
of fifteen bamboo sticks having a slight re-divergence springing from
the handle end, so that when held closed in the hand as it is by courtiers
while fulfilling the office of fan-bearing, it still appears open. It is stated
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that this spread-out form was adopted as court-fan on account of the misuse of the dagger-fan. The mount is of paper, which may be painted with any design in any colour except the unlucky green and light purple.
One of the many traditions of its invention may be given. It is attributed to a fan-maker of the Tenji period, 668-672, whose name is forgotten, living at Tamba near Kyoto. He was married to a shrew, and on a certain night a bat having found its way into the sleeping-room, the woman reviled her husband for not getting up to throw the vampire out. The animal coming in contact with the lamp, scorched its wings and fell to the floor. As the man picked it up, the opening of the creature's wings suggested to him the principle of a folding-fan that might be carried in one's sleeve.1
The Suye hiro ogi (wide end) has a similar divergence to the foregoing, with the addition of a slight curve or rounding of the outward sticks. It was used for the dances in the No drama ; the number of sticks varying from fifteen to twenty-five. This also dates from the seventh century. The example illustrated is decorated with a series of crests of various families on a gold ground. In a drawing by Bun-chin, nineteenth century, British Museum, 891, of Performers in the ' No' Theatre, is represented a beautiful fan of a peacock with outspread tail and branches of bamboo, in gold, blue, and green. This fan is of the ordinary shape.
The Akome" ogi is the earlier court-fan, and dates from the invention of the folding-fan in the seventh century. It consists of thirty-eight blades of wood painted white, decorated with cherry, pine, plum, or chrysanthemum, on a ground of gold and silver powder, ' among the mist.' The fan is ornamented at the corners with an arrangement of artificial flowers in silk, with twelve long streamers of different coloured silks ; the rivet is formed of either a bird or butterfly. This type of fan was in use by the court ladies until 1868.
1 Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art. 63
HISTORY OF THE FAN
By the courtesy of Mr. W. Crewdson we are enabled to reproduce one
of these rare fans, bearing the following inscription : —
' The decorations at the end of this Akome-ogi show that it was used by a court lady. At Kioto, the Mikado's Palace had Lemon trees at the right-hand side of the entrance and Cherry trees at the left ; hence these ornaments composed of Cherry flowers and Pine knots.'
The description which Pierre Loti has given us of these fans is so charming that we cannot refrain from quoting it.
' They wave with constant motion, or carry shut, their court-fans, on the pleated silk (?) of which are delicately painted dreamy fancies, of inexpressible charm, picturing the reflection in the water of cloud forms, of moons wintry pale, the flight of birds, or showers of peach blossom wafted by the wind in April mists. At each angle of the mount is tied an enormous tassel with shades of chenille, the ends of which trail along the ground, brushing the fine sand at each movement of the fan.'
The Hi-ogi court-fans are made of the Hi wood (Chamcecyparis obtusa), this being a soft light velvety wood of a beautiful golden brown, having the additional advantage of immunity from the attacks of wood-eating insects. The brins are twenty-five in number, fastened with a metal rivet, and threaded through with silk strings having very long ends, looped at the top corner of the outer ribs to form a rosette or other floral device. These fans were first introduced with the simple ornament of the owner's crest afterwards they were painted with great elaboration and delicacy.
At court ceremonial the Emperor and nobles often bear the Hi-ogi instead of the Shaku, which is a short staff or sceptre made of wood (yew) or ivory, generally held vertical in the right hand against the lower part of the chest, to give the body a more dignified bearing ; when the fan is borne, it is generally carried closed, and held in the same manner as the Shaku.1
Before the age of fifteen a fan of common wood is carried, painted
1 Josiah Conder, Japanese Costume. 64
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
on the outside, and ornamented with silk threads or strings in five colours ; on his sixteenth birthday the Japanese youth attains his majority and receives a present of a fan.
The code regulating all the details of court ceremonial is absolute, and always observed ; the use of ivory for the Shaku is confined to the highest ranks, or the most important ceremonial ; no noble could use an ivory Shaku on any occasion. The various usages connected with the fan are subjected to similar restrictions.
Ladies carried in place of the Shaku the Hi-ogi.
A fan of special make and design is used by the Empress, and its use is forbidden to any subject. The blades are twenty-three in number, connected with a white silk ribbon. The decoration is confined to the chrysanthemum, pine, orange blossom, plum, or Camellia Japonica. The ribbon rosettes or loops, affixed to the top of the outer blades, are arranged in keeping with the particular flower which is represented on the fan ; these have seven long streamers, four feet long, of different colours. The rivet also is of a particular kind — paper string}
Chukei are fans borne by priests and nobles ; these have a re- divergence at the ends, and date from the period of the introduction of the folding-fan ; they are often painted with the most consummate skill, reflecting the best traditions of Japanese art. Many of these paintings exist ; in most cases the leaves have been removed from the sticks and mounted as pictures.
Fabulous stories are extant recounting the marvellous accomplish- ment of the painters of the earlier epochs ; amongst these is an account of Tadahira, who is said to have painted upon a fan a cuckoo which uttered its characteristic note whenever the fan was opened, and of Tsunenori, who drew a lion so life-like that other beasts fled from it.
1 Mrs. Salwey, Fans of Japan. 65
HISTORY OF THE FAN
The leading schools of Japanese painting are the Buddhist, Yamato- Tosa. Chinese, Sesshiu Kano, Matahei (popular), Korin, Shijo (natural- istic), and Ukiyo ; each of these has well-marked characteristics preserved even to the present day.
The art of Japan was to a great extent founded upon, and is in certain directions a development of, that of the older civilisation of China. The earliest artist, therefore, recorded in Japanese annals, is a Chinese, Nanriu by name, of royal descent, who came to Japan about the end of the fifth century ; but of this master, and of his immediate successors, there are no known examples.
It was in the succeeding century, upon the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, that we find the first establishment of a school of Japanese art, initiated by the Chinese and Coreans, and dedicated to the mural decoration of Buddhistic temples.
From the sixth to the ninth centuries, the history of Japanese painting is more or less clouded in doubt, and the first great artist who emerges from the general obscurity is Kanaoka (ninth century), although the few examples extant which are attributed to this painter are doubted by the best experts.
The Yamato-Tosa school, though the direct outcome of the study of Chinese methods, was essentially Japanese and naturalistic in character, and was founded by Kasuga Motomitsu in the latter part of the tenth century.
In the thirteenth century Tsunetaka, son of Kasuga Mitsunaga, assumed the name of Tosa and gave to the Yamato school the name it has since retained.
An important movement set in at the beginning of the fifteenth century, no less than a Chinese renaissance. For centuries Chinese influence had been waning, and the national style of Yamato and Tosa had held the field.
66
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Sesshiu, the remarkable painter who founded the school bearing his name, was of the noble family of Ota, and was born in 1440. At the age of twelve or thirteen he was intended for the Church and placed under the instruction of the abbot of the temple of Hofukuji. Sesshiu's sympathies, however, were all in the direction of the fine arts, he neglected religious training, and a story is told of him — one of those extraordinary legends familiar in Chinese and Japanese annals — that upon one occasion, when bound to a pillar as punishment for some misconduct, he beguiled the weary hours of waiting by drawing rats upon the floor, using his toes for pencil and his tears for ink (1), the representation being so life-like as to alarm his janitor. Some versions of the story affirm that, upon the approach of the priest, the rats scampered away.
At the age of forty he visited China, the fountain-head, but was surprised to find that he had more to teach than to learn.
The fan of Hotei and the children, probably by Kano Sho-yei, 1591, may be accepted as one of the finest examples of a painted fan of the Kano school, the last of the three branches of the fifteenth-century revival of Chinese teaching. The school was founded by Masanobu, a painter of landscape, born c. 1423 and died 1520, its actual head, however, being Motonobu, his son, born 1476.
Hotei (Master Linen-sack), the god of prosperity, was a Chinese
priest of the tenth century, famous for his fatness and his love of children.
He could sleep in the snow, never washed himself, and had the power of
infallibly predicting future events. The legends attached to his name are
very similar to those narrated of many Taoist Rishis, but his claim to
a position as Divinity appears to be due to the view enunciated in the
Butsu-Zo dzu-i and other works, that he was an incarnation of Miroku
Bosatsu Maitreya, the Messiah of the Buddhists, in which capacity his
image has long been worshipped in Chinese temples. He is usually
represented with a fan of the pear-shaped gourd type, and carries a cloth
67
HISTORY OF THE FAN
bag as a trap for little boys and girls, who are enticed inside to see the wonderful things it is supposed to contain, and then imprisoned until they can beg their way out. These ' Precious Things ' include the Lucky Rain Coat, the Sacred Key, the Inexhaustible Purse, etc.1
Innumerable pictures of Hotei by Japanese artists are in existence, some dating from the fifteenth century.
The charmingly poetic view of the Tamagawa River, with the tea-plant in blossom, and flying cuckoo (Hoto-Togisu), is probably by Kano San Raku, 1633. Both these fans are accompanied by a Japanese certificate of authenticity.
Autograph, motto, and inscription fans are referred to in another part of this work.2 The practice of inscribing sacred texts upon fans, obtained during the latter part of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century, the period ' when the Buddhist religion was openly professed by the wealthy and warmly supported by the luxurious.' Fragments of Buddhist sutras written on fans and fan leaves exist at the temples at Yamato, 6saka, the Imperial Museum T6kyo, and elsewhere. These are copied from the ' Lotus of the True Law,' or other Mahayana texts of a like nature. The fans, though differing somewhat in size, are all alike in paper, pigments, and style of painting, and evidently had a common origin ; they are overlaid with gold-leaf and dusted with fine sand ; upon this a thin wash of red or black pigment is applied. The sacred text is written in ink, over a painting, usually a figure-subject and bearing no reference to the text ; the faces sketched in a curious convention known as Hikime" Kagihana (eye with a line, the nose with a key), in which the eye is represented by a straight line and the nose with a somewhat acute angle. This convention has been traced to Kasuga Takayoshi (beginning of the twelfth century), who painted a number of picture rolls illustrating the tales of the Genii.
1 Anderson, British Museum Catalogue of Japanese Paintings. 2 Chapter XI. page 285.
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A fan leaf owned by the Temple of Saikyoji, Sakamoto, Omi, is illustrated in Selected Relics of Japanese Art, S. Tajima. A hi-ogi, with figures and pine-tree, in the Shinto Temple, Itsukushima-Jinsha Aki, is illustrated in the same work : this latter, doubtless, is a production of the Taira era, possibly a dedication to the temple from a scion of the Taira family, and painted by a daughter of Taira Kiyomori, the premier, 1 1 67- 1 1 80, the writer of the 'Lotus of the True Law.'
A similar combination of painting and writing obtained later, and was practised by Koyetsu Hon-Ami, the predecessor of Korin Ogata, the reputed founder of the Korin school. This artist was a skilful writer of Chinese ideographs, in which art he was one of the ' Three Pens ' of his time, being the founder of the Koyetsu school of caligraphy.1
A fine example of Koyetsu in the possession of Baron Ryuichi Kuki is reproduced in Mr. Tajima's work. This is painted on a gold ground, and represents a rabbit in a flowered field. The fan is divided in two parts, the writing, which is by the artist, being on the gilt portion. Koyetsu died at Kyoto in 1637, aged eighty-two.
The Ukiyoye" school included most of the makers of colour prints ; two of the more famous of them, Masanobu Kiato, and Hokusai Katsushika, born in the same year, 1760, also painted fans. The former opened a shop at Ginza for the sale of smokers' implements and medicine, and sold besides folding-fans and long panels upon which poems were written ; both of these he ornamented with sketches ; they became renowned far and wide, and from their sale he derived large profit.
A fan leaf by Hokusai, a masterly sketch of the head and shoulders of a ' Beauty,' is illustrated in Tajima's work, as also several fans painted with courtesans, by an almost equally celebrated maker of colour prints, Kunisada.
1 Beautiful writing is highly prized both in China and Japan. Caligraphy, says Mr. S. W. Bushell (Chinese Art, p. 31), is a branch of the fine arts in China, and the penman who can write elegantly in sweep- ing lines with a flowing brush is ranked above the artist.
69
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Battle- or war-fans are of two kinds— the flat, rigid screen (uchiwa) which is the earliest, and the folding (ogi). In both, iron is the material of which it is mainly composed. The first named is sometimes formed com- pletely of metal (iron and brass), is of considerable weight, and is used by officers both for direction, offence and defence, i.e. as baton, weapon, and shield.
This sometimes assumes a circular form, and is occasionally inlaid with
the more precious metals ; more often, however, it resembles the pear-
or gourd-shaped screen. In the centre example illustrated, belonging to
Mr. W. Harding Smith, the handle is of lacquered wood, the ornaments
at its extremities, together with the rim of the fan blade, of bronze gilt ; it
bears an inscription on the obverse in Japanese, and on the reverse in
Chinese, as follows : —
Japanese script.
' Kisei ai shozaru jun-kwan no hashi naki-ga gotoshi.'
' Wrong and right (or odd and even) happen for ever, impartially, like the revolving ball.'
This may, possibly, be rendered by the following : —
' Defeat and victory succeed each other by a turn of Fortune's wheel.'
Chinese script. 1 Sono toki-koto kaze no gotoku Sono shizuka-nuru koto hayashi no gotoshi.'
' Its sharpness is as the wind, its softness as the grave.'
The fan in the possession of Mr. W. L. Behrens is ornamented with
two dragons in low relief, the motto ' Tenka tai hei ' (international peace).
In the folding battle-fan, the stick is of wrought iron, the branches
70
FANS OF THE FAR EAST
varying from ten to fourteen in number ; in many military fans, the stick is of bamboo, painted black, the guards of iron, often arrow-shaped, and richly inlaid with silver.1
The decoration of the mount, of thick paper, consists of the sun, moon, or north star, usually in red, but also in gold, on a black or coloured ground. An unusual example, illustrated, has a gold sun on the one side, and a silver crescent moon and nine golden planets on the reverse ; the ground being light, the guards of yellow bronze, ' seutoku.'
The fine fan in the possession of Mr. L. C. R. Messel has on the obverse a golden sun with two flying birds, and on the reverse a silver sun with similar birds.
The sun motif is occasionally abandoned in favour of a figure-subject. M. Ph. Burty exhibited at Liverpool in 1877 a fan that belonged to a commander-in-chief; the leaf, of stout buff paper covered with silk tissue, is painted in india ink with the Seven Sages in the Forest of Bamboru. The brins are of plain whalebone, the panaches of oxidised iron, elaborately inlaid with scroll-work and crests in silver, the latter being of the powerful family of Nai-To. Another fan from the same collection belonged also to an officer of high rank. The brins are of bronze gilt, the panaches of polished iron, shaped like slips of bamboo, and chased with lions and flowers. On the inside of one panache is an inscription in inlaid gold, stating that the ironwork was made by U. Da-Kane-Signe ; the leaf of glistening paper.
The most characteristic war-fans are, however, those having the simple red sun, with no superfluous decoration, the initial purpose of these instru- ments being that of a signal. They constantly appear in representations of battle-scenes, the general on his war-horse in the heat of battle brandishing in his right hand the fan, the symbol of his authority and command. In
1 In this process of metal inlay, the ground is broken up by means of an engraver's tool, the pattern formed of silver wire, hammered in.
71
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Hokusai's painting of ' Tamdtomo and the Demons ' (British Museum, No. 1747), the hero is grasping a huge bow in his right hand, and waving the folding battle-fan in his left.
In a print by Kuniyoshi (c. 1820) of the battle of Kawanakajima between Uyesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen (fifteenth century), a sword- cut is parried by the war-fan.
In a representation of the same battle by Yoshitora, a dismounted general is directing with a war-fan an attack by spearmen.
In the colour print by Hiroshige 11. of Yoshitsune and Benkei, the war- fan also appears.
In the print by Shunsui of Atsumori and Kumagai, the hero, mounted, is plunging into the sea followed closely by his adversary Kumagai, also mounted, brandishing the war-fan as a signal and challenge.1 Two of the many stories or legends relating to the war-fan may be given. — The first refers to Nasu no Yoichi, an archer, whose clan took the fan as their crest,2 in allusion to his performance at the battle of Yashima in 1185. 'When the Taira were driven from Kyoto by the Minamoto in 1182, the Empress Ni no Ama flew with the child-emperor Antoku, to the shrine of Itsukum- isha, where thirty pink fans, bearing the design of the sun disc (Hi no Maru) were kept. The head-priest gave one to Antoku, saying that it contained in the red disc the Kami of the dead Emperor Takakura (1 169-1 180), and would cause arrows to recoil upon the enemy. The fan was accordingly attached to a mast of the Taira ship, on which a court lady is always depicted, and a challenge sent to Minamoto no Yoshitsune, which was accepted by one of his archers, Nasu no Yoichi, who on horseback rode in the waves, and with
1 The widow of Atsumori who was killed in the fight here referred to, in 1184, is credited with the invention of the folding-fan, although dates are somewhat confusing. At the temple of Mieido in Kyoto, whither she had retired to hide her grief under the garb of a nun, she cured the abbot of a fever by fanning him with a paper folding-fan over which she muttered incantations : and to this day the priests of the temple are considered special adepts in the manufacture of fans ; hence the name Mieido is adopted by many fan shops all over the islands. (Basil Chamberlain, Things Japanese.)
2 The fan was used as crest by many Japanese families. A number of examples are given in Mrs. Salwey's Fans 0/ Japan.
72
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
a well-directed arrow broke the rivet which held the leaves together, and thus shattered the fan.'
The second tells of Araki, a Samurai whom Oda Nobunaga wished to kill, summoning him to audience, placing himself in such a position that the neck of the Samurai came in line with the sliding panels separating the audience chamber from the daimio's room, intending to have the shoji slammed together as the man knelt, and thus decapitate him. Araki, sus- pecting the trap, promptly laid his iron fan in the groove, jamming the shutters, and thus saving himself.1
The Ha uchiwa (jin sen) is a camp-fan originally introduced from China in the seventh century and made of the feathers of the eagle, pheasant, or peacock, the handle usually lacquered red, black, or blue ; the interesting example illustrated is formed of eagles' feathers fixed in a horn handle.
Dancing-fans (Mai ogi) were introduced at the beginning of the seven- teenth century. The brins are ten in number, the mount of thick paper, usually bearing a family crest. One of the earliest of these fans is to be seen in the painting of a dancer by Matabei (born 1578), in the Morrison collection (reproduced in Painting in the Far East, Laurence Binyon), the decoration of the mount consisting of a few scattered leaves.
The fan is the most usual accompaniment of the dance, and is generally seen in the hands of the Kagura dancers or of the performers with the Shishi mask. The fan dance, which is more nearly allied to jugglery than to the dance, is said to commemorate the performance of Uzume while alluring the Sun Goddess Amaterasu from the cavern, whither she once retired, plunging the world into temporary darkness by her absence. In this, the fan represents the leaves of the pine-tree, the performer balancing a number on his forehead, nose, mouth, hands and feet.
Tea-fans (Rikiu ogi) are for use at the tea ceremonies celebrated in honour of tea in every province on the first day of the first month, and com-
1 Henri L. Joly, Legend in Japanese Art.
k 73
HISTORY OF THE FAN
memorating the curing of the Emperor Murakami, 947-967 a.d., of a disease against which the physicians were powerless. The Emperor recovered after drinking an offering of tea made to the Goddess Kwanyin. The code, that formerly was of a gorgeous description, was modified later by Sen-no Rikiu, from whom the fan set apart as cake tray or saucer derives its name. The Rikiu fan is of the simplest possible construction, having only three sticks, the decoration also being of a simple character. It is used for handing round little cakes, and for no other purpose, fanning being strictly tabooed during such a dignified proceeding.1
The giant closing fans (Mita ogi) were used in the processions at Ise in honour of the Sun Goddess, the traditional originator of the Japanese dynasty. These were six or seven feet long, five men being appointed to carry one of this huge magnitude.
Water-fans (Mizu uchiwa), for kitchen use, date from the eighteenth century. These are of bamboo split into segments, covered with stout paper, and varnished or lightly lacquered so as to allow of the fan being dipped in water, thus securing extra coolness by evaporation. They are often decorated with figures and other subjects, the varnish subsequently applied being of a rich warm brown.
Roll-up fans (Maki uchiwa) are circular, the paper stiffened with thin strips of bamboo ; the handle is of bamboo cut through with a slit to allow the circular fan, which is set on a pivot, to have free play. When open, the strips of the bamboo foundation are horizontal, thus securing rigidity; when not in use, the position of the strips may be reversed, and the disc rolled round the stick and tied.
Of modern fans, those of ivory and tortoise-shell, carved or decorated with lacquer and inlay, are, for the most part, made for exportation, and are often of extreme beauty. The excellent example in the Victoria and Albert Museum is decorated with circular medallions in gold lacquer of
1 Mrs. Salwey, Fans of Japan.
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FANS OF THE FAR EAST
various shades, portions being carved in relief. It is finely inlaid in places with mother of pearl ; signed by Taishin (a pupil of Zesshin), and dated 1884. An example, equally fine, is given from the collection of Mr. M. Tomkinson. This is decorated with a view of Fuji san, or Fuji-no-yama (peerless mountain); those born within its watch are con- sidered most happy and fortunate beings.
' Great Fujiyama, tow'ring to the sky !
A treasure art thou giv'n to mortal man,
A god-protector watching o'er Japan — On thee for ever let me feast mine eye.'1
Of the cheaper hand-screens exported in large quantities to Europe, the simplest form is that of a dried palm leaf cut to the required shape, and bound round the edge, the stem forming the handle. The most common variety is made by splitting bamboo into thin strips that are spread out radially, fastened with thin cord, and covered with paper ; these are decorated with designs displaying high qualities of arrangement and graphic skill, and are printed in that process of chromoxylography which, if not actually invented by the Japanese, has been carried by them to its highest point of excellence. A more elaborate hand-screen is also exported, the covering of silk, painted.
It will be readily understood, that the fan, entering as it does so closely into the daily life of the Japanese, should also form the subject of many games. Two characteristic instances may be cited. The ' fan and cup' game was particularly favoured by court nobles and ladies. A company met by the river, each member launching on the water a fan prepared with varnish or lacquer to ensure buoyancy and to prevent absorption of moisture. The game consisted in the composition of a verse or couplet of poetry during the time the fans were at the mercy of wind and wave, and before they regained terra-firma. Tea-cups were
1 Ode from the Manyoskin, translated by Basil Chamberlain.
75
HISTORY OF THE FAN
also used, this last being illustrated in a Chinese makimono by Hwei-chi Ku-Yuen, British Museum, 276.
In the ogi otoshi or fan target game, a target called ' cho,' made some- what in the form of a butterfly, is placed on a low table or pedestal on the floor. A fan is thrown from a given distance with a sudden and peculiar turn of the wrist, causing it to reverse itself in its passage through the air and strike the target with the rivet end. This game is played by two people facing the target at opposite ends. Bells are attached to the outer edge of the 'cho,' that sound when a successful hit has been accomplished.1
No notice, however brief, of the fans of Japan would be complete without some reference to the constant employment of the fan form as a decorative motif in Japanese design, one of the many evidences of the important place the fan holds in the affections of the people. Lacquered tea-trays assume the shape of the fan ; inkstands take the form of a closed fan, the ink-well at the rivet end, the body of the fan forming a case for pens ; 2 while in diapered patterns, borders, and other decoration, both flat and in relief, the fan motif is constantly made use of. The interesting series of fan-shaped panels illustrative of Japanese history, by an unknown artist of the Yamato Tosa school, seventeenth century, British Museum, 305-324, are excellent instances of the use of the fan form in flat decoration, these being probably removed from an old screen. Three kakemonos in the collection of Mr. R. Phene- Spiers are each finely painted with four full-sized fans, decorated with various lilies, drawn with that consummate skill and knowledge of plant form which would appear to be the peculiar heritage of the sons of Dai Nippon.
1 Transactions of tlie Japan Society, vol. v. Paper by Mrs. Salwey on Pastimes and Amusements of the Japanese.
- In the Musee Guimet, Paris, is a tea-service, fine in execution, signed 'Kawamoto Hansouke,' an artist of the province of Owari, the saucers being shaped like fans. In the same collection is a large plate, fourteen inches in its longest dimension, shaped like a folding-fan.
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CHAPTER IV
FANS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
IN any survey of the industrial arts of the more primi- tive nations or peoples, three facts must be taken into consideration: ist, climatic conditions; 2nd, the natural products indigenous to the country, and the outcome of its climatic conditions ; 3rd, the degree of the intellectual development of its inhabitants.
The study of any particular branch of art pre- supposes some acquaintance with the history of the people among whom the art was practised. In con- 1 V sidering, however, the art of primitive peoples, this
* matter of history and association plays but a minor
part. Pictorial storiation is practically non-existent, individualism is lost in the collective racial influence. Moreover, the raw material of industry is precisely the kind readiest to hand, and generally demanding the minimum of skill in its working.
The fans of primitive or more or less uncivilised peoples may there- fore be divided into three or four distinct types: ist, the natural palm-leaf fans, common in most palm-producing countries ; 2nd, the plaited rush-, grass-, or cane-fans, these being generally of the spatula, or half-halberd shape; 3rd, hide-fans, which usually take the form of round or oval screens; 4th, feather-fans, the character being necessarily determined by the kind of feathers employed.
77
HISTORY OF THE FAN
It will readily be perceived that the earliest and simplest forms are those supplied ready to hand by Nature herself, viz. palm-leaf fans. These may be divided into two great classes. In the one, the leaf is set symmetrically on the stem ; in the other, it is fixed laterally ; in both instances the natural stem forms the handle. An excellent example of the first named is the large fan made from the leaf of the Pritchardia pacifica, used only by the great chiefs of the Fiji Islands. In this the leaf is cut to the shape of a reversed heart, bound round the border by a wisp, the ends of the fronds being arranged in tufts at intervals round the edge of the fan, forming an agreeable contrast to the simple radiating lines of the leaf.
In the second class of palm-fan, one side of the leaf is either cut away or bent laterally, the large leaves of the Palmyra or Talipot palms being used, cut short, the edges worked round with an applied border of thin strips of the leaf. This form appears to be ubiquitous; it is common, not only to primitive peoples, but also to the more civilised countries of the East. In India it appears both in the form of the smaller hand-fans and the larger pankhas, often richly decorated in colour, with inserted plaques of mica, or other ornamental device.
The art of plaiting with rush, straw, grass, cane, roots, and other flexible materials is one of the very earliest practised by man ; we find it in constant use amongst savage tribes, who employ the process for mats, baskets, various coverings for the person, and other articles of personal and domestic use ; both the technical skill and the aesthetic effect being often of a very high order. It will at once be perceived that this process is especially suited to the fan, which demands, above all things, lightness of construction ; the plaited fan is therefore the most usual form in that vast group of islands known as Polynesia, as well as in most other countries situated within the equatorial belt.
78
FANS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
The principle of plaiting is to commence from the stick or handle, which generally extends two-thirds of the distance along the blade or leaf of the fan. The stick is generally of wood, occasionally of ivory, and in some instances both substances are employed, the handle often elaborately carved.
The most usual shape is that of a spear cut crosswise and shortened : the ordinary principle of form - development is followed, from extreme attenuation lengthwise, to extreme width and shortness, the form of the lower border varying from an acute angle to a semicircle, the top varying from straight line to arched or curved.
The plaiting is of varying degrees of fineness according to the character of the leaf, straw, cane, or fibre employed. The patterning also varies, occasionally straw of a different colour (black or brown) being introduced.
This type of fan is found in the Marquesas Islands (South Pacific), the Hervey (Cook) Islands, Solomon Islands, Samoa, and the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands. A large plaited broad rush-fan appears in the Horni- man Museum, made and presented by Queen Kapiolani of the Hawaiian Islands (illustrated p. 272) ; a similarly formed fan appears in the same collection from Tahiti.
In some examples from Samoa in the British Museum collection, the
79
HISTORY OF THE FAN
shapes are slightly more varied, remarkably so in one instance in which the top border assumes a pointed or zigzag pattern. The kite shape also is found in various forms. (Page 81, Nos. i, 2, 3.)
In the Hawaiian group a spatula shape appears, this also being
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
developed to its utmost limit of breadth or width, the handles of plaited hair, in two colours, forming a pattern.
In British Guiana a curious fan (warri warri) is used, formed of strips of the Ita palm, having no stem, but simply a rolled edge, either single or double (crosswise), forming a finish to the leaf or blade, and affording a grip for the hand. The size of these fans varies from six to fifteen inches. A development of the above form is used as bellows by the natives of Ecuador and Peru ; the double handle slightly longer, the forms varied to leaf and shield shape. In India, also, the two-handled bellows-fan is used, made of strips of the leaf-stalk of the Tucuma palm.
In the British Museum is a curious little fan having only a loop for handle, formed of plaited reed (Iturite) of two colours, brown and black. (Page 81, No. 8.)
In the hide-fans common on the western border of Africa, the
form approaches that of a circular screen, set on a wooden handle. In
these the ornamentation is either formed of the natural markings of the
hide, or an ' applique ' of leather, painted white, and cut to various
perforated patterns, so as to show a bright vermilion feather stuff in the
perforations ; the three colours, the brown or black of the hide, the
80
, a, 3, ii, u. SAMOA. <, 5. BRITISH GUIANA. 6, 7, 9. ECUADOR AND PERU. 9, 10. SOUTH-EASTERN PACIFIC.
8l
HISTORY OF THE FAN
white leather, and the vermilion perforations forming a very effective con- trast. Examples from Nigeria appear in the British Museum collection. A smaller fan of goatskin is in the Horniman Museum. These hide-fans form part of the fantastic death-dance costumes of Old Calabar.
Feathers, although constantly employed as ornaments to the person, are less commonly used for fans than might generally be supposed, especially in countries where bird life is abundant.
Amongst the Blackfoot nation of North American Indians, eagles' feathers were used as a standard of valour at the advent of the white man, and the capture of eagles was regarded as a sacred ceremony. In the British Museum is a fan of these eagles' feathers, with a handle covered with coarse linen of a printed pattern ; to the tip of each feather is affixed a small pink fluffy feather, thus forming a pink border to the top of the fan, the border being repeated at the top of the handle. This was pro- cured from ' Little Ears,' a Blood Indian. A similar fan, minus the handle, appears in the same collection ; in this instance the tips of the feathers are ornamented with little tails made of hair, varied at the lower ends by white fur. In consequence of a dream that appeared to a Blood chief named Bears' Lodge, a dance was instituted in which these fans were waved, and whistles made of eagles' bones were carried and used. (Illustrated opposite.)
Ceremonial fans were employed by the Indians of the Great West ; we have an account of the visit of a Taensas chief on the banks of the Lower Mississippi to Le Sieur de La Salle in 1682: 'The Chief conde- scended to visit La Salle at his camp ; a favour which he would by no means have granted, had the visitors been Indians. A master of cere- monies and six attendants preceded him, to clear the path and prepare the place of meeting. When all was ready, he was seen advancing clothed in a white robe, and preceded by two men bearing white fans,
while a third displayed a disc of burnished copper, doubtless to represent
82
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FANS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
the Sun, his ancestor, or, as others will have it, his elder brother.' 1 It is safe to assume that these fans were of feathers, and the incident is an evidence that the use of the fan in high ceremonial was universal, and common to both East and West.
There still remains the cockade form of fan, found amongst the West African tribes ; an example appearing in the British Museum collection, of paper, with primitive painted ornaments in black, red, and yellow, alternated with inscription ; the fan measuring some twenty inches in diameter.
A most interesting example of hide appears in the Horniman Museum, taken from the king's palace at Benin in 1897. This, doubtless, from its size and the cumbrous nature of its material, as well as the foregoing example, was waved by the attendants of some highly placed personage, probably the king.
The square or oblong flag-fan is made by the natives of the Niger settlements of West Africa. An example in the Victoria and Albert Museum is of plaited grass with strips of the natural shades of brown and yellow, and others stained red and black ; the handle is covered with reddish-brown leather, fringed along the side of the leaf, the fan edged with the same material.
The appearance of similar decorative motifs in countries widely separate opens up an in- teresting field of speculation. Some explanation, however, of the fact of the cockade (though in itself, together with the flag form, a simple device) appearing among the West African tribes, may be found in the fact that the natives of the interior of West Africa were
1 Francis Parkman, La SalU and the Discovery of the Great West.
83
HISTORY OF THE FAN
long exposed to the influence of the Mohammedan culture of the Western Sudan ; the races were to some extent intermingled, and a close commercial relationship has been maintained during a long period.
Fly -whisks are obviously articles of necessity throughout the countries of the Torrid Zone.1 These are formed either of feathers, of vegetable fibre, of the hair of the larger animals, of hempen string, or other materials.
These instruments occasionally acquire a sacred significance ; Blondel affirms that they were common in Peru and Mexico before the Spanish conquest, and, together with the fan, were used also as a symbol of authority, the handles being adorned with the precious stone ' theoatz- ehuaquetzalli.'
A species of fly-whisk, formed of dried grass, is used as a war fetish by the natives of the Gold Coast ; in some instances an iron bell is attached, carried and rung by the magician in front of the warriors. Sticks and also fan handles bound with feathers are used as propitiatory offerings to the gods by the natives of the South-Eastern Pacific. (Page 81, Nos. 9, 10.)
In the Hawaiian Islands feather wands (Kahili) are carried as a symbol of rank ; these appear to have been originally fly-whisks, and are formed of the tail feathers of various birds. Six examples are included in the British Museum collection, the handles formed of ivory alternated with horn, the extremity of the handle being formed of the bone of an enemy.
A long fly-whisk from Hawaii appears in the same collection, formed of the neck feathers of the cock, of varying colours, white, orange, and brown, with black tip ; the handle of wood, bound round with black and buff cane.
1 Miss Kingsley refers to their use at Egaja, ' for the purpose of battling with the evening cloud of sand-flies.'
84
FANS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
The most primitive form of fly-whisk is that from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, made of grass fibre, bound to a stick, and resembling a rough besom.
Vegetable fibre of various kinds would appear, indeed, J to be the material most commonly employed for these articles, being, doubtless, the readiest substance to hand. A remark- able series of fly-whisks from Tahiti, formed of fibre, were presented to the British Museum by Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Bart. ; in these, the handles (of wood) are finely plaited half- way with fibre of two colours, the rest of the handle of a spiral form, the head carved to a fantastic shape.
An interesting fly-whisk from the Tonga Islands is formed of cocoa-nut fibre, finely plaited at its junction with the wooden handle ; small turquoise, black, and white beads, are affixed to the plaited portion, these forming an extremely effective contrast to the rich red brown of the fibre. In Samoa, enormous fly-whisks are formed of this material, sometimes affixed to a handle of wood, and |v> occasionally bound round with the same material to form the handle. (Page 81, Nos. u, 12.)
A curious fly-whisk from Tahiti is of twisted fibre, the handle being formed of two birds' wing-bones bound together, with a portion of plaited fibre in two colours form- ing the extremity of the stem at its junction with the whisk.
The Matabeles employ fly-whisks of horse-hair, both white and black. An example of white horse-hair bound with brass, fixed in a handle of cane, and also one of black hair, with the handle formed of plaited brass wire, are to be seen in the British Museum.
85
HISTORY OF THE FAN
A similar fly-whisk of black horse-hair is in the same collection ; the handle of steel wire, bound round a double leather thong, the extremity forming a loop ornamented by blue glass beads. These are used by the elders (Elmoru) of the East African Protectorate.
Black horse-hair forms the material of fly-whisks used by the natives of the Upper Nile. In the example illustrated the hair is set in an open-shaped piece of leather, with a long bone handle.
In Abyssinia, also, fly-whisks formed of the tails of the smaller animals are employed. An example occurs in the India Museum, the hair dyed red and yellow, the handle of silver parcel-gilt. Probably the most curious of all fans and fan-like objects in use among primitive peoples is the so-called Ghost Fan of South Celebes (Malay Archipelago). This mysterious object consists of a triangular arrangement at the end of a stick, of fine spun red stuff embellished with a bordering of gold tinsel, together with spangles or hanging ornaments along its lower edge. Around the stick is tightly twisted a piece of paper, probably containing an incantation. An example occurs in the Ethnological Museum, Berlin, referred to and illustrated in Der Fdcher, Georg Buss. (See p. 1 06.)
86
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CHAPTER V
THE FLABELLUM AND EARLY FEATHER-FAN
THE Christian Church was quick to perceive the utility of the fan as an instrument of religious ceremonial, imparting to this object a mysterious importance, a sacerdotal distinction, preserving and shielding it from common use ; it has even been claimed that this appropriation was instituted by the Apostles themselves, Bishop Suarez attempting to substantiate this by an appeal to an apocryphal liturgy attributed to St. James.
The earliest recognised notice, however, of the fiabellum as a liturgical ornament is in the Apostolical Constitutions, which direct that after the oblation, before and during the prayer of consecration, two deacons are to stand, one on either side of the altar, holding a fan made of thin membrane (parchment), or of peacocks' feathers, or of fine linen, and quietly drive away the flies and other small insects, that they may not stick against the vessels; this use of the fiabellum being derived, not from the ritual of the synagogue of the Jews, but from that of the Pagan temples. Butler {Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt) quotes a similar rubric from the liturgy of St. Clement. The same author refers also to flabella waved by the deacons in the Syrian Jacobite, and probably also in the Coptic, rite for the ordination of a priest at laying on of hands — they appeared at solemn
87
ANGEL WAVING A
FLABELLUM
(From the Book of Kells.)
HISTORY OF THE FAN
festivals and at regular celebrations of mass.1 On Good Friday, also, they were used at the consecrations of Chrism — seven deacons holding flabella, walking on either side of the holy oil when carried in procession.
Many evidences of its early adoption by the Latin Church are extant. Moschus [Prat. Spirit uale, § 150) cites an occurrence showing its employment in the time of Pope Agapetus, a.d. 535, in which a deacon, who had falsely accused his bishop, was re- moved from the altar when he was holding the fan in the presence of the Pope, because he hindered the descent of the Holy Spirit on the gifts. This same author {Prat. Spiritnale, § 196), in narrating how some shepherd boys near Apamea were imitating the celebration of the Eucharist in childish sport, is careful to mention that two of the children stood on either side of the celebrant, vibrating their handkerchiefs like fans,2 thus showing that the use of the flabellum was general even at this early period. In a letter of St. Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, c. 1098, accompany- ing the present of a flabellum made to a friend, its use and mystic import are explained — the flies, representing the temptations of the devil, are to be driven away by the Catholic faith.
Gradually the waving of the flabellum acquired a deeper symbolic meaning — it was held to signify the wafting of divine influence upon the ceremony, the movements to and fro symbolising the quivering of the wings of the Seraphim ; hence we find repre-
(From Buller.) ° r ' r
1 In the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, after the Eenedictus — ' Supra sancta ventilet reverenter flabello. Si desit flabellum, velo idem praestat.' (Divina Afissa S. Joan. Chrysostomi, Goar. Ritual' Graecorum. p. 76.)
5 Smith, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.
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THE FLABELLUM & EARLY FEATHER-FAN
sentatives of the Seraphim playing an important part in its ornamentation. In the Book of Kells we have a representation of the four evangelists in which the Seraphic symbol of St. Matthew is figured by the crossed flabella, each having a pair of bells with triple hammers; the remaining three evangelists being represented by the usual symbols of the Lion in the centre, and the Bull and Eagle at the lower corners.
Germanus (Neale, Eastern Church, p. 396) goes even further, and holds that the vibration of the nabellum typifies the tremor and astonish- ment of the angels at our Lord's Passion.
In a Byzantine fresco at Nekrdsi (Caucasus), of a date uncertain but some- what late, an open sanctuary is represented with two angelic winged deacons waving seraphic flabella around the head of the second person of the Trinity.
We have, then, in these flabella, two distinct types — the one composed of some yielding material such as vellum or peacocks' feathers, the handles usually of ivory ; the other rigid, and formed of metal, either silver or silver gilt, this latter being essentially a processional fan ; both being used in ceremonial processions and celebrations of the mass.
Metal flabella also divide themselves into two classes — the large-handled processional fan, and the short hand-fan ; an example of the latter is given from Butler, and consists of a circular disc of metal decorated with two rude figures of the Seraphim interspersed with Romanesque ornament. C0PTIC ,
Actual specimens of ancient flabella are almost non-existent, although
a few have been preserved on the Continent ; one of the most famous
being that of the abbey church of Tournus, on the Sa6ne, south of
Chalon, at present in the Carrand collection, Museo Nazionale, Florence. m 89
HISTORY OF THE FAN
This remarkable example, which may be taken as a characteristic type, is formed of a strip of vellum folded a la cocarde, painted on both sides with figures of St. Philibert and other saints divided by conventional trees. The outer borders consist of a continuous scroll of Romanesque ornament interspersed with figures of animals. Latin hexameters and pentameters are inscribed on the three concentric borders of the fan, as follows : —
>J< FLAMINIS HOC DONUM, REGNATOR SUMME POLORUM, OBLATUM PURO PECTORE SUME LIBENS. VIRGO PARENS XPI VOTO CELEBRARIS EODEM, HIC COLERIS PARITER, TU FILIBERTE SACER.
>$< SUNT DUO QUAE MODICUM CONFERT ESTATE FLABELLUM ; INFESTAS ABIGIT MUSCAS ET MITIGAT AESTUS, ET SINE DAT TEDIO GUSTARE MUNUS CIBORUM. PROPTEREA CALIDUM QUI VULT TRANSIRE PER ANNUM, ET TUTUS CUPIT AB ATRIS EXISTERE MUSCIS, OMNI SE STUDEAT AESTATE MUNIRE FLABELLO.
>J< HOC DECUS EXIMIUM PULCHRO MODERAMINE GESTUM, CONDECET IN SACRO SEMPER ADESSE LOCO; NAMQUE SUO VOLUCRES INFESTAS FLAMINE PELLIT,
ET STRICTIM MOTUS LONGIUS IRE FACIT. HOC QUOQUE FLABELLUM TRANQUILLAS EXCITAT AURAS, ,ESTUS DUM SEVIT VENTUM FACIT ATQUE SERENUM, FUGAT ET OBSCENAS IMPORTUNASQUE VOLUCRES.
The handle is formed of four cylinders of white bone, two being
ornamented with semi-naturalistic vine foliage running spirally round the
stem, the two lower fluted. These cylinders are united by nodes or
pommels, tinted green ; on the middle node the inscription michel ■ m •,
on the upper >J< iohel me scae fecit in honore mariae. The stem is
surmounted by a capital with four figures of saints, whose names appear
on the node immediately beneath : s • maria • s • agn • s • filib • s • pet.
On the capital rests the guard or box which receives the flabellum when
closed ; the four sides are of elaborately carved white bone with green-tinted
borders ; the front and back panels, betraying evidence of a different hand,
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THE FLABELLUM & EARLY FEATHER-FAN
are now in the Musde de Cluny, Paris, and consist of arabesques of foliage with figures, birds, animals, etc., modelled with great spirit. The two lateral panels or faces form the richest portion of the fan, and are carved with six subjects from the Eclogues of Virgil. Three seated senators with other figures, two shepherds with oxen ; three shepherds, two of whom are playing pipes, some sheep in the foreground ; a seated shepherd blowing a horn ; another shepherd with oxen and goats ; a shepherd and satyr with dog and goats ; and a seated shepherd with two oxen.
The modelling is somewhat rude and archaic, but extremely rich in decorative effect. One edge of the fan is fixed in the box, the other is attached to one of the lateral panels, which, in order to open the fan, is drawn over and attached to the reversed side by means of a cord.
Both sides are figured in colours in Du Sommerard's work Les Arts du Moyen Age.
Of other flabella which exist, one is preserved in the Dominican Monastery of Prouille, in the diocese of Toulouse ; another, with a handle of silver, was formerly at St. Victor, near Marseilles.
In the British Museum is a portion of an ivory handle of a flabellum, French, of the twelfth century, about twelve inches in length, finely carved with figures of the twelve Apostles and emblems of the Evangelists. In the Victoria and Albert Museum is a similar fragment, but smaller, carved with compartments of animals, mythical beasts, monsters, etc. ; these probably formed the two divisions of one single flabellum. These handles were sometimes square-shaped, as in the instance of the fragment in the Salting collection at present in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is also French, of the fourteenth century, and is carved on each of its sides with figures of saints in niches, with crocketed arches.
A portion of the cylindrical stem of a flabellum or aspergillum, probably French of the twelfth century, is in the British Museum. This represents the occupations of the twelve months of the year in three bands,
9i
HISTORY OF THE FAN
as follows : January, a two-headed Janus looking in opposite directions ; February, a figure seated before a fire ; March, cutting trees with a hatchet ; April, gathering blossoms ; May, an equestrian figure with hawk ; June, a mower with sickle and hooked stick ; July, a mower with scythe ; August, a reaper with sickle ; September, thrashing wheat ; October, sowing corn ; November, killing a pig; December, pouring wine into a cask.
The figures are separated from each other by trees, and the three bands by rings ornamented with foliage and zigzag patterns with semi-rosettes, and at top and bottom are rings with half-defaced inscriptions.
There is also in the same collection a capital of morse ivory for the handle of a flabellum, North German, twelfth century.
These instruments figure repeatedly in inventories of church and abbey property. Butler quotes from one at St. Riquier, near Abbeville, in 831, 'a silver fan for chasing flies from the sacrifice.' At Amiens, in 1250, there existed a fan for a similar purpose, ' flabellum factum de serico et auro ad repellendas muscas et immunda.' In 1363 La Sainte Chapelle possessed 'duo flabella vulgariter nuncupata muscalia, ornata perlis'; in 1376, ' ij flabella, Gallice esmouchoirs, ornata de perlis.'
In the sacrist rolls of Ely, ' Item, j flabello empt. ad Aurifabrum, yd. Item, in pari flabellorum pro le Colpeyt empt. 6d.'
A Salisbury inventory mentions two fans of vellum or other material.1 The Chapel of St. Faith in the crypt of old St. Paul's possessed, in 1298, a muscatorium or fly-whip of peacocks' feathers.2 There is record of a gift to York Minster, between the years 1393 and 1413, of a silver-gilt handle for a flabellum.3 In 1346, Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, presented to the cathedral ' unum flabellum de serico cum virga eburnea.'4 In the inventory of the Chapel of West Exeter, Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, ' i. muscifugium
1 ' a.d. 1 214, Ornamenta Ecclesie Sarum, inventa in Thesauraria. ij. flabella de serico et pergameno.'
2 Dugdale, History of Si. Paul's.
3 ' Manubrium flabelli argentum deauratum, ex dono Joh. Newton, thesaurarii, cum ymagine Episcopi in fine enamelyd, pond. v. unc' * ficgistruvi Roff. p. 554.
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de pecock.'1 In the enumeration of the valuable effects of the deceased Queen Isabella, daughter of Philippe le Bel, and consort of Edward n., the following entry appears : ' De Capella, Duo flagella pro muscis fugandis.'2
In England the flabellum was in use even in remote parishes. In the churchwarden's accounts at Walderswick, Suffolk, in 1493, is an entry of IVd. for 'a bessume of pekoks fethers.'
Although the flabellum is very rarely represented in illuminated MSS., in the Book of Kells we find miniatures of angels waving these instruments ; in the Gospel of Treves (eighth century) is a conjoined evangelistic, symbolic figure holding a small flabellum in one hand and a eucharistic lance in the other. In a Hiberno-Saxon MS. of the eighth century a figure of St. Matthew is seen holding in his hand a flabellum. In the public library at Rouen are two representations of the use of this instrument ; in the one, a thirteenth-century missal, formerly belonging to the abbey of Jumieges, the fan is held by the deacon in front of the altar at which the priest officiates ; in the other, it is waved over the head of the priest as he elevates the wafer : this in a pontifical of the church of Rheims, thirteenth century.
A psalter in Greek, British Museum, additional MSS. 19,352, gives a miniature of an angel waving a large flabellum over the head of David who is asleep ; another instance occurs in a thirteenth- century Service-Book in the Barberini Library, given by Paciandi.3
Representations in printed books are still more rare. In Barclay's Ship of Fools of the World, 1509,
FROM A GREEK PSALTER. (British Museum.)
1 Journal of the Aniueofogical Association, vol. xxvi. * Archozoiogical Journal, vol. v.
3 Pauli Paciandi de Umbellae Gestatione Commentarius, Romae, 1752, P- lxiii.
93
HISTORY OF THE FAN
we find, however, a woodcut illustration of a spectacled bibliophile wearing
cap and bells, seated among his books, holding in his hand a flabellum
of feathers, saying :
' Attamen in magno per mc servantur honore : Pulueris et cariem, plumatis tergo flabellis.'1
the word Jlabe/lis being here applied to the ordinary hand-brush or duster.
By the end of the sixteenth century the flabellum had fallen into
complete disuse, its original purpose having been
long abandoned or forgotten, although as late as 1688
Randle Holmes, Academy of Armory, refers to ' the
flap or fann to drive away flies from the chalice.'
Its sole reminiscence in the west is in the large
flabella of peacocks' feathers carried at solemn festivals
in procession before the Pope. In the Greek Church,
the fan is still delivered to the deacon at ordination
as the symbol of his sacred office.
|^ From the period of the final break up of the Roman
Empire to that of the Crusades the general use of the
fan was discontinued in Europe, and was probably only
adopted by highly placed personages ; during these early
periods, however, it was still the religious fly-flap or
flabellum, (Tdmouchoir, and Blondel infers from the
circumstance of Etienne Boileau not referring to it in
his Livre des Mcstiers (1200), that even at this time it
no longer served any domestic purpose except in very
rare instances.
The earliest English reference to the fan appears to be the following : —
' In the thirtieth year of King Edward 1., precept was given to Nicholas
1 ' But yet I have them in great reverence
And honour, saving them from filth and ordure By often brusshyng and moche dylygence.'
94
THE FLABELLUM & EARLY FEATHER-FAN
Pycot, Chamberlain, of the Guildhall of London that he should cause to be sold all pledges for any debt whatsoever then in his custody.
' In an inventory of pledges sold for arrears on the King's Tallage, 31 Edward 1., 1303. One fan (value not stated) taken from Henry Gyleberd of the ward of Basseshawe for 2s. 8d., which he owes of arrears of the fifteenth.' '
The oldest existing Christian fan, and the most famous of the few fans of which we have any record during the Middle Ages, is that which has become identified with Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards, the saintly princess, who possessed a nail of the holy cross which was ultimately used as a setting to the Iron Crown of the kings of Lombardy. This fan is preserved as a sacred relic in the Cathedral of Monza near Milan. Superstition has invested it with magical powers. Pilgrimages are made to Monza by village maidens, often from a long distance, on a certain day of the year, as the act of touching it is believed to facili- tate and promote their marriage projects. It is of the cockade shape, formed of vellum, of the beautiful purple hue we find in contemporary manuscripts ; it is decorated with an alternating diaper of Romanesque ornament in gold and silver, and round its outer border on either side is the following inscription in Latin hexameters, which is given by Mr. W. Burges, Archceological Journal, vol. xiv., on the one side :
>J< ' Ut sis conspectu praeclara et cara venusta,
Hac rogo defendens solem requiesce sub umbra, Has soror obtutu depictas arte figuras Praelegeris flavido ut decoreris casta colore.'
and on the reverse, now much obliterated :
' Pulchrior ut facie dulcis videaris amica . . . fervores solis . . . Me retinere manu Ulfeda (?) poscente memento . . . splendoris . . .'
1 Memorials of London and London Life in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries, by Henry Thomas Riley.
95
HISTORY OF THE FAN
Mr. Burges has pointed out that the form of the letters of the inscription, which are Roman with slight Rustic variations, as also the purple dye, are sufficiently similar to contemporary manuscripts of St. Augustine of the end of the sixth century.
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THE MONZA FLABELLUM. Details.
The case which accompanies the fan is constructed on the same
principle as the handle of the Tournus flabellum, although less elongated.
It is of wood, covered with silver, the wooden part probably modern, made
to the original shape, with the old silver used again. The length of the
case with handle is 15^ inches, the diameter of the leaf 10 inches.
96
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THE FLABELLUM & EARLY FEATHER-FAN
The side flap was originally fastened to the fan, and drawn round until it formed a complete circle, as in the instance of the Tournus flabellum.
With respect to the identity of the original owner of this fan, although the claim which has been made for its association with Queen Theodolinda cannot be substantiated, its identification with any well- defined personage is equally difficult. Who was Ulfeda? Mr. Burges states with reference to this name that it is by no means the most legible part of the inscription — that he has been able to discover no one so named who lived during this period.
M. de Linas points out that the name Ulfeda is a variant of the Saxon Elpheid, which the marvellous cloisonne- fibula, exhumed, as is said, from a Carlovingian sepulchre at Wittislingen (Bavaria), gives under the softened form of Ufeila.
This Monza fan is not mentioned in an inventory of the treasury in 1275; in that of 1353 the following, however, occurs :
' Item, fabella, seu orata una argenti facta ad modum unius maze cum manica ligni ligata in argento.'
M. de Linas infers from the fact of the extremity of the handles being
provided with a ring, that it was not a liturgic fan, and certainly this
circumstance, together with the smallness of its size, would appear to be
a sufficient evidence of its secular use ; in any event, and whatever its
original use, this fan, together with that of Tournus, must be accounted
among the most precious relics preserved to us from that dim and dark,
but extremely