History of the Fan
by G. Woolliscroft Rhead · English · Gutenberg #46136 · 654,315 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: History of the Fan
Author: G. Woolliscroft Rhead
Release date: June 29, 2014 [eBook #46136]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE FAN ***
HISTORY OF THE FAN
_This edition is limited to 450 copies for sale in Europe and the
British Dominions, of which this is No. 93._
[Illustration: Rinaldo in the garden of Armida, Louis XV. skin mount,
stick mother of pearl, guards jewelled, given by King William IV to
Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge & left by her to her grand-daughter
Victoria Mary.
H.R.H. the Princess of Wales.]
HISTORY 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 TREATMENT
OF DRAPERY IN ART’; ‘STUDIES IN PLANT FORM’;
‘CHATS ON COSTUME,’ ETC.; JOINT AUTHOR OF
‘STAFFORDSHIRE POTS AND POTTERS’;
‘BRITISH POTTERY MARKS’
[Illustration]
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. LTD.
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.
1910
Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
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 Tamagawa River_, is by the
GROUT ENGRAVING COMPANY.
The lithograph of _Bacchus and Ariadne_ is by Messrs. MARTIN, HOOD AND
LARKIN.
PREFACE
[Illustration]
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 Éventails_, published in 1875, is but sparsely
illustrated, and is mainly based upon the researches of M. Natalis
Rondot, whose _Rapport sur 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
Fächer_, 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 disadvantage. 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
crucifères, le Flabellum, et l’Umbella,’ in _La Revue de l’Art
Chrétien_, 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 _Fraser’s Magazine_
for May 1879; articles in 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. Phené
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. WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN 1
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 87
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
CHAPTER VIII
PAINTED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES (ENGLISH, DUTCH, FLEMISH, AND GERMAN) 176
CHAPTER IX
ENGRAVED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES. PART I. 204
CHAPTER X
ENGRAVED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES. PART II. 232
CHAPTER XI
MODERN AND PRESENT-DAY FANS 272
INDEX 301
[Illustration: PEACOCK-FEATHER FAN.
(From a Japanese Painting. British Museum.)]
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
1. RINALDO IN THE GARDEN OF ARMIDA. LOUIS XV. H.R.H.
THE PRINCESS OF WALES _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
2. A CONCERT. DUTCH. H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE, DUCHESS
OF ARGYLL 1
3. LA DANSE, AFTER LANCRET. DR. LAW ADAM 8
4. SEA NYMPHS. ITALIAN. MR. W. BURDETT-COUTTS, M.P. 27
5. THE RAPE OF HELEN. ‘VERNIS MARTIN.’ LADY LINDSAY 30
6. CHINESE FAN. FILIGREE AND ENAMEL. MR. M. TOMKINSON 46
7. CHINESE FAN. RED LACQUER. MISS MOSS 53
8. HOTEI AND THE CHILDREN. By KANŌ-SHŌ-YEI, 1591. MR. WILSON
CREWDSON. 67
9. THE TAMAGAWA RIVER. By KANŌ SAN RAKU. MR. WILSON CREWDSON 68
10. CUT VELLUM FAN. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 107
11. FAN MOUNT. BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.
MRS. BRUCE-JOHNSTON Between pages 122 and 123
12. PIAZZA OF ST. MARK. MR. W. BURDETT-COUTTS, M.P. 125
13. SPANISH FAN PAINTED IN THE CHINESE TASTE. LADY LINDSAY 127
14. PASTORELLE. SPANISH. H.S.H. PRINCESS VICTOR
OF HOHENLOHE-LANGENBURG 132
15. BULL FIGHTS. SPANISH. LADY NORTHCLIFFE 134
16. PASTORELLE. LOUIS XV. WYATT COLLECTION, VICTORIA
AND ALBERT MUSEUM 138
17. MOMENS MUSICALS. ‘VERNIS MARTIN.’ MR. LEOPOLD
DE ROTHSCHILD, C.V.O. 142
18. THE RAPE OF HELEN. ‘VERNIS MARTIN.’ LADY NORTHCLIFFE 158
19. DIDO AND ÆNEAS. MRS. BISCHOFFSHEIM. Facing reverse of same Fan
between pages 162 and 163
20. ‘CABRIOLET’ FAN. LADY NORTHCLIFFE 164
21. DIRECTOIRE AND EMPIRE FANS. MISS ETHEL TRAVERS BIRDWOOD, AND
MR. L. C. R. MESSEL, FACING ‘SANS GÊNE’
AND EMPIRE FANS between pages 170 and 171
22. TELEMACHUS AND CALYPSO. THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS OF BRISTOL 176
23. WEDDING FAN. Directoire. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 188
24. WEDDING FAN. H.R.H. PRINCESS HENRY OF BATTENBERG 272
25. LE CERF DE ST. HUBERT. BY ROSA BONHEUR. M. GEORGES CAIN 280
26. THE RED FAN. CONVERSATIONS GALANTES. BY CHARLES CONDER.
MR. JOHN LANE 294
27. THE BLUE FAN. BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A. 296
ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE
28. LE BAL D’AMOURS. H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 2
29. HOMMAGES OFFERED TO MADAME DE POMPADOUR. MRS. BRUCE-JOHNSTON 6
30. EGYPTIAN FAN HANDLES. BRITISH MUSEUM 14
31. TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES ” 28
32. AN EASTERN POTENTATE TAKING TEA. MRS. HUNGERFORD POLLEN 33
33. INDIAN FLY-WHISKS AND PEACOCK EMBLEM OF ROYALTY. INDIA MUSEUM 38
34. LARGE HAND-FAN OF SANDALWOOD. MRS. HUNGERFORD POLLEN 41
35. FLAG AND PALM-LEAF FANS. INDIA MUSEUM 42
36. CHINESE FAN. FILIGREE AND ENAMEL. VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 48
37. HAND-SCREEN, FRONT AND REVERSE. MR. WILSON CREWDSON 50
38. LACQUERED FAN. LADY NORTHCLIFFE 54
CARVED IVORY FAN WITH THE NAME ANGELA. MR. W. BURDETT-COUTTS,
M.P. 54
39. CHINESE FAN WITH IVORY MINIATURES. MR. W. BURDETT-COUTTS, M.P. 56
40. CHINESE FEATHER-FAN (ARGUS PHEASANT) WITH CASE. VICTORIA AND
ALBERT MUSEUM 59
41. NETSUKI (DAI TENGU). MR. W. L. BEHRENS 60
CAMP-FAN OF EAGLE FEATHERS. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 60
DAGGER-FAN. MR. W. L. BEHRENS 60
42. SUYE HIRO OGI (Wide End) Open and Closed. MR. W. HARDING SMITH 63
43. AKOMÉ OGI (COURT-FAN). MR. WILSON CREWDSON 64
WAR FAN (GUN SEN). MR. W. HARDING SMITH 64
44. FOUR WAR FANS (GUMBAI UCHIWA). MR. L. C. R. MESSEL,
MR. W. HARDING SMITH, MR. W. L. BEHRENS 69
45. WAR FANS (GUN SEN). MR. L. C. R. MESSEL AND
MR. W. HARDING SMITH 72
46. MODERN JAPANESE FANS. IVORY WITH GILT LACQUER AND PAINTED
FAN SIGNED ‘KUNIHISA.’ MR. M. TOMKINSON 74
47. THREE CHŪKEI. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 76
48. PALM-LEAF AND HIDE FANS. BRITISH MUSEUM 77
49. PALM FANS, COCKADE INSCRIPTION FAN, FLY-WHISKS (TAHITI), AND
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN FAN. BRITISH MUSEUM 82
50. THE TOURNAMENT. BY A. MOREAU. VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 87
51. FLABELLUM OF TOURNUS. MUSEO NAZIONALE, FLORENCE Facing each other
52. ” ” ” DETAILS between pages 90 and 91
53. IVORY FAN AND FLABELLA HANDLES. BRITISH MUSEUM AND VICTORIA AND
ALBERT MUSEUM 92
54. FAN OF QUEEN THEODOLINDA. CATHEDRAL OF MONZA 96
55. COPTIC FLAG-FANS. KÖNIGL. MUSEUM, BERLIN 98
56. QUEEN ANNE FEATHER-SCREEN. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 102
57. DÉCOUPÉ FAN. MUSÉE DE CLUNY 109
58. FAN OF MICA. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 110
59. VENUS AND ADONIS. BY LEONARDO GERMO. WYATT COLLECTION,
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 114
60. AN EMBARCATION. MRS. HAMILTON SMYTHE 116
CUPID’S HIVE. THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS OF BRISTOL 116
61. THE TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS. LADY NORTHCLIFFE 118
BACCHUS AND ARIADNE. LADY NORTHCLIFFE 118
62. THE MARRIAGE OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. MR. FRANK FALKNER 121
63. A SACRIFICE. MRS. BRUCE-JOHNSTON.
Facing the Colour Plate of Bacchus and Ariadne
Between pages 122 and 123
64. RINALDO IN THE GARDEN OF ARMIDA. MISS MOSS 129
CAPTURE OF THE BALEARIC ISLANDS. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 129
65. BETROTHAL OF LOUIS XVI. WITH MARIE-ANTOINETTE. MRS. FRANK W.
GIBSON (EUGÉNIE JOACHIM) 130
66. SPANGLED FAN. Spanish. MR. TALBOT HUGHES 136
FÊTE DE L’AGRICULTURE, 1798. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 136
67. LA DANSE, AND PASTORELLE. DUCHESS OF PORTLAND 141
68. PASTORELLE, AFTER LANCRET. H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE,
DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 144
69. ACTÆON FAN. MUSÉE DE CLUNY 146
70. CEPHALUS AND AURORA. MRS. BISCHOFFSHEIM 148
VERNIS MARTIN. MRS. F. R. PALMER 148
71. A PASTORELLE, WITH TWO PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS. WYATT COLLECTION,
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 150
72. THE PARTING OF HELEN AND ANDROMACHE. THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS
OF BRISTOL 153
73. BATTOIR FAN. THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS OF BRISTOL 154
74. FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE. ‘VERNIS MARTIN.’ WYATT COLLECTION,
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 156
75. BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK 160
76. BUILDING OF THE PLACE LOUIS XV. THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS
OF BRISTOL 162
77. DIDO AND ÆNEAS. REVERSE. MRS. BISCHOFFSHEIM. Facing the Colour
Plate of same Fan Between pages 162 and 163
78. ‘CABRIOLET’ FAN. THE DOWAGER
MARCHIONESS OF BRISTOL } Facing each other
79. ”” ”” ”” ”” } between pages 164 and 165
80. WEDDING FAN. THE COUNTESS OF BRADFORD } Facing each other
81. ” ” LADY LINDSAY } between pages 166 and 167
82. STICK OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE FAN. MUSÉE DU LOUVRE 169
83. SANS GÊNE AND EMPIRE FANS. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL. Facing Colour
Plate of Directoire and Sans Gêne Fans Between pages 170 and 171
84. ‘LORGNETTE’ FANS. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 173
85. SPANGLED GAUZE FANS. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 175
86. A LONDON FAN SHOP. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 178
THE SURRENDER OF MALTA. MRS. HUNGERFORD POLLEN 178
87. FÊTES ON THE OCCASION OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE DAUPHIN. WYATT
COLLECTION, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 180
ENGLISH FAN. THE VISIT. COLLECTION OF BARONESS MEYER
DE ROTHSCHILD 180
88. ENGLISH FAN WITH MEDALLIONS AFTER COSWAY. WYATT COLLECTION,
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM 182
89. IVORY EMPIRE FAN. LADY NORTHCLIFFE 184
SPANGLED FAN WITH PAINTED MEDALLIONS. MRS. FRANK W. GIBSON 184
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 } Facing each other
93. AN EMBARCATION. DUTCH. M. J. DUVELLEROY} between pages 192 and 193
94. DUTCH FAN WITH HEAD ON STICK. SIR L. ALMA-TADEMA, O.M., R.A. 194
95. AN OFFERING TO CERES. H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE,
DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 196
96. DUTCH FAN (DÉCOUPÉ). MRS. DAVIES-GILBERT 198
DUTCH FAN WITH ‘PAGODA’ STICK. MR. L. C. R. MESSEL 198
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 200
98. GERMAN FAN. GIVEN BY H.R.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT TO
QUEEN VICTORIA 200
” ” LANDESGEWERBE MUSEUM, STUTTGART 200
99. TWO GERMAN FANS. KUNSTGEWERBE MUSEUM, BERLIN 202
100. ENGRAVED HAND-SCREEN. A. CARRACCI. SCHREIBER COLLECTION,
BRITISH MUSEUM 204
” ” ” C. F. HÖRMAN. ”” ”” 204
101. FÊTE ON THE ARNO, ‘ÉVENTAIL DE CALLOT.’ BRITISH MUSEUM 206
102. GROTESQUE FAN, STYLE OF CALLOT. BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE,
PARIS 208
103. THE FOUR AGES. ABRAHAM BOSSE 210
104. TITLE-PAGE. Nicholas LOIRE. SCHREIBER COLLECTION,
BRITISH MUSEUM 212
LA COQUETTE. BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE, PARIS 212
105. TAKING OF THE BASTILLE. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 214
DUC D’ORLEANS. MISS MOSS 214
106. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE, PARIS 222
‘CABRIOLET’ FAN. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 222
107. NAPOLEON SHOWS HIS TROOPS THE CHANNEL. BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE,
PARIS 224
108. PROJECTED INVASION OF ENGLAND, 1803. BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE,
PARIS 226
109. MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON. BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE, PARIS 228
ADVENTURE IN RUSSIA. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 228
110. A NEW GAME OF PIQUET. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 232
111. THE MOTION. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 236
THE NEW NASSAU FAN. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 236
112. THE HARLOT’S PROGRESS. MR. C. FAIRFAX MURRAY 238
113. VISIT OF GEORGE III. TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY. MR. F. PERIGAL 246
114. MR. THOMAS OSBORNE’S DUCK-HUNTING. SCHREIBER COLLECTION,
BRITISH MUSEUM 252
115. THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. MR. W. BURDETT-COUTTS, M.P. 258
THE PARADES OF BATH. MR. W. BURDETT-COUTTS, M.P. 258
116. A TRIP TO GRETNA. SCHREIBER COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM 264
‘BARTOLOZZI’ FAN. MRS. FRANK W. GIBSON (EUGÉNIE JOACHIM) 264
117. MISS CHARLOTTE YONGE’S FAN. MISS MOSS 274
FAN OF ASSES’ SKIN. MISS MOSS 274
118. PAINTED IVORY BRISÉ FAN. MR. LEOPOLD DE ROTHSCHILD, C.V.O. 276
PORTUGUESE FAN. MR. J. H. ETHERINGTON-SMITH 276
119. LACE MOUNT. YOUGHAL CO-OPERATIVE LACE SOCIETY 278
AN ENTOMOLOGIST. COUNTESS GRANVILLE 278
120. COCKS AND HENS. CLAUDIUS POPELIN. MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS,
PARIS 282
121. AUTOGRAPH FAN. SIR LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA, O.M., R.A. 284
” ” JAPANESE. MR. FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A. 284
122. LACE FAN PRESENTED TO QUEEN ALEXANDRA FOR USE AT CORONATION.
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN 286
123. FEATHER-FAN. H.R.H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES 289
124. THE MEET. BY CHARLES DETAILLE. M. J, DUVELLEROY 290
125. LACE FAN. BY ALEXANDRE. VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM } To face each
} other between
126. LACE FAN. M. J. DUVELLEROY } pages
} 292 and 294
127. DESIGN FOR FAN. BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A. 298
A GARLAND OF CHILDREN. BY G. WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD 298
ILLUSTRATIONS IN LINE
PAGE
Feather-fan, Nimroud ix
Peacock-feather Fan xii
Head-piece xiii
Initial—Boy with Fan 1
Tea-fan 9
Initial—Vulture with Emblem of Protection 10
Fire-fan, Colombia 12
Portuguese ‘Abano’ 12
Plaited Hand-fan, Egyptian 13
Hand-fan, Egyptian 13
Hand-fan, Egyptian 14
Fly-whisk, Egyptian 14
Ceremonial Fans—from Rosellini 15
” ” 16
Investiture of the Office of Fan-bearer 17
Umbrella or Canopy of Chariot of Rameses III. 19
Initial—Assyrian Fly-whisk 20
Assyrian and Persian Fly-whisks 21
Covers of Fly-whisks 21
Tail-piece—from an Assyrian relief 26
Initial—Greek Girl with Fan 27
Greek Fans 28
Greek Girl with Fan 30
Tail-piece—Girl with Fan 32
Initial—from printed Cotton Hanging, India 33
Cingalese Sēsata 37
Fly-whisk—from an illumination 38
” from a painting on talc, Madras 38
Emblem of Royalty 39
Royal Standards 40
Hand-fan 41
Plaited-Grass Fan 41
Flag-fan 41
Talapat Fan and Pankhás 42
Burmese Fan of Gold 43
Portion of Embroidered Muslin (Chamba,
Nineteenth Century) 44
Fly-whisk used by Jains 45
Circular Fan, ‘Like the Moon’ 46
Fan of Hsi Wang Mu (Japanese Painting,
British Museum) 47
Fan of Ming Dynasty (Painting, British Museum) 47
White Plumed Fan of Hsi Wang Mu 48
Two Pear-shaped Screens 49
Initial—Japanese 60
Feather-fan, Japanese Painting 61
Hand-screen, ” ” 61
Fly-whisk, Upper Nile 77
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 85
” 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 Château de Pierre 109
Small Rigid Fans, 1590 109
Feather-fan, Milan 110
Diagram of parts of Folding-fan 116
Rigid Screen of Bologna, 1590 127
Fan of Rice-straw, Fifteenth Century 138
Dimensions of Fans, 1550-1780 148
Japanese Lady’s Court-fan 175
Long-handled Feather-fan 176
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
[Illustration: A Concert. Dutch, 1720-30, given by the Duke of Cobury
to Princess Victoria (afterwards Queen) in 1836, from the collection of
Fans at Gotha.
H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.]
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE FAN
In 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 consideration, 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
‘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.’[1]
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_.’
[Illustration: Le Bal d’Amours, by A. Soldé, reverse, a group of
cupids. stick mother of pearl. From Queen Victoria’s collection.
H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.]
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
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 _Œuvres
Philosophiques_, discovers a hundred such:—‘It is so charming, so
convenient, 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 chère 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 manœuvres de la galanterie, sont cachées dans les
plis de son éventail. Les audaces furtifs du regard, les aventures
de la parole, les aveux risqués, les demi-mots proférés du bout des
lèvres, tout cela est dissimulé par l’éventail, 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. _She signalled_: his eyelids pleaded short sight,
awakening to the apprehension of a pleasant fact; _the fan tapped_, and
he halted his march, leaning scarce perceptibly in her direction. _The
fan showed distress._’[2]
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’ll make you a present of this
inestimable Rarity.’ ‘You see, Madam,’ continued she, upon Virgulta’s
inquiry 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 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.’[3]
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’utilité des éventails,’ ‘la utilidad de los abanicos.’
This use of the fan as shield, is adopted also by the _shinláung_, 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.
[Illustration:
Epoch Louis XV.
Fan Mount—Unfolded.
Hommages offered at the Altar of Madame de Pompadour
by Church and State,—Literature, Art, Music, Etc.
Hommages Offered to Madame de Pompadour.
Mrs Bruce Johnston.]
A story, the source of which is not given,[4] 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.’
‘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.’[5]
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 tapered 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!’[6]
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,’ 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
VIII.) had prodigious fans, as is to be seen in old pictures,[7] 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
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;[8] 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.’[9]
[Illustration: La Danse, after Lancret.
Dr Law Adam]
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 Boissey, author of _Le Babillard_, will not be lost upon
lovers:
‘Deviens le protecteur de ma vive tendresse,
Bel éventail! je te remets mes droits;
Et si quelque rival avait la hardiesse
D’approcher de trop près du sein de ma maîtresse,
Bel éventail: donne-lui sur les doigts!’
[Illustration: TEA FAN.]
CHAPTER II
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS
EGYPT
[Illustration]
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
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.[10] This instrument, carried at the
Dionysia or festivals in honour of Bacchus, was called Lichnon
(Λίχνον), 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,’[11] 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.’[12]
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.’
The Greeks named ῥιπίς the large flat instrument which was used to fan
the fire: the diminutive ῥιπίδιον 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.
[Illustration]
The employment of these instruments, as well as the forms which they
assumed, is continued even to the present day:[13] 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.
[Illustration]
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.
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
amphoræ.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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 suggested in the representation, and obviously used by the lady
herself rather than by attendants.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: Two Fan Handles.
Portion of a Fan Handle, inscribed with the name of Nebseni.
Egyptian, 18th Dynasty.
British Museum.]
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
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.
[Illustration: CEREMONIAL FANS
(From Rosellini.)]
In the temple of Rameses XII., 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.[14] In the temple of Derri in Nubia, the sacred
barque of the god Phré is solemnly borne by twelve priests, the king
accompanying in military costume; a flabellifer waves the long-handled
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 III. Two
servitors behind the king carry these fans, and two fan-bearers wave
the ostrich-feather emblem.
[Illustration: CEREMONIAL FANS
(From Rosellini.)]
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
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.
[Illustration: INVESTITURE OF THE OFFICE OF FAN-BEARER
(From Wilkinson.)]
The monuments bear eloquent testimony to the importance and
significance of this object. At Thebes (palace of Medinet Abu), Rameses
Méiamoun appears in a magnificent palanquin, surrounded 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.
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-Méiamoun 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 II., 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
flabellum, offer the spoils of conquest to the king.
On a bas-relief at Thebes, Seti I. is seen in his war-chariot subduing
the barbarians, also accompanied by the vulture.
At Philæ, 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 Rā-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 III. (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 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 Nitôcris, 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?
[Illustration: UMBRELLA OR CANOPY OF THE CHARIOT OF RAMESES III.]
‘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.’
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS—_Continued_
ASSYRIA
[Illustration]
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 representations of the fly-whisk. On a
bas-relief from Nimroud King Sennacherib is standing in his chariot
superintending 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 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.[15]
[Illustration: ASSYRIA]
[Illustration: PERSIA]
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 attendants 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.’
[Illustration]
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 determine; in the reliefs of
Assur-bani-pal at Susiana, of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, and others,
two flabelliferæ walk behind the king’s chariot bearing in their right
hands the fly-whisks, their left hands not 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 II. 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.[16]
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.[17]
The word Baal simply means owner, master, or lord. In Phœnicia 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; as Baal-Gad, Baal-Hammon, Baal-Thamar. In the ‘authorised
version’ the name is Baal-zebub, afterwards changed to Beel-zebub; the
original conception 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 Carthaginian 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.
Ælian (_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.[18]
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.[19] 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.[20]
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 Chaldæa 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 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 mediæval 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
monuments—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.[21]
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 II., 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.[22]
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
Ch’ang—and named Ting Huan—made a fan of seven large wheels 10 feet in
diameter, the whole turned by a single man.
[Illustration: FROM A BAS-RELIEF. (Nimroud.)]
The luxurious Guez de Balzac, in the twentieth letter, written from
Rome in 1621, to the Cardinal de la Villette, with his customary
extravagant 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_.’
[Illustration: Sea Nymphs, Italian, 1760, gouache on skin; horn stick,
finely piqué in gold, panaches with crown & fleurs de lys of France.
Mr W. Burdett-Coutts. M.P.]
FANS OF THE ANCIENTS—_Continued_
GREECE AND ROME
[Illustration]
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 fanning
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
Phœnicians, who were the traders between the east and the west. In the
sarcophagus of Amanthus (Cyprio-Phœnician), 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.’
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.[23]
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;
Fugátque muscas myrteâ puer virgâ.’
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Terra Cotta Statuettes.
British Museum.]
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
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 1860; 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 Hydra, F. 352, a fan appears which is
evidently a conventional representation 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.
[Illustration: FROM AN APULIAN HYDRA. (British Museum.)]
On an Etruscan crater, representing Heracles strangling the serpents,
surrounded by the greater gods, a fan of plain feathers is held in
the hand of one of the attendants. On a sarcophagus at Vulci, found
in the winter of 1845-6, a female figure appears waving a large fan,
ῥιπίς, 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.[24]
In the Museo Gregorio, Rome, are half-a-dozen handles of fans, with
holes for threads or wire, to tie in feathers or leaves.
[Illustration: The Rape of Helen. ‘Vernis Martin.’
Lady Lindsay.]
‘The fashion of the fan,’ says M. de Linas,[25] ‘was probably
introduced into Italy in the sixth century B.C. We learn from
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that Aristodemus, tyrant of Cumæ, and
ally of Porsenna, corrupted the youths of this town by making them
effeminate buffoons, accompanied by followers who carried the flabellum
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 everywhere, 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 (_flabellifer_), who protected his mistress
from the insects during sleep.
Plautus, _Trinummus_, II. i., refers to these _flabilliferae_, but in
this instance the term is obviously applied to female fan-bearers.
Propertius, II. xxiv. 11, 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.’
The same author, III. lxxii. 10-11, 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 tabellæ, 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 _Amores_. ‘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.[26]
Propertius, also, in the fourth book of his _Elegies_, represents
Hercules as seated at the feet of Omphale, fan in hand.
[Illustration: FROM AN ETRUSCAN VASE. (British Museum.)]
[Illustration: An Eastern Potentate taking tea. finely painted in
gouache on gold ground, French, c. 1780. stick modern.
Mrs Hungerford Pollen]
CHAPTER III
FANS OF THE FAR EAST
INDIA
[Illustration]
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 reverence. 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 discover 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 _Mahábhárata_, the ancient epic of Hindostan, we have a
description of the death of the monarch Pândou, in which great crowds
assemble at the bier to do homage to the dead, bringing offerings of
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 Karna, 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.[27]
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 religiosa_), 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 VII.) to India, it was deemed necessary for his
Royal 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
_Curiosités Mystérieuses_. ‘Le pommeau,’ says the chronicler, ‘est orné
de ce que les Romains nomment Ombrellino (petit dais en parasol). S’il
s’agissait à coup sûr de ce baldaquin (qui est le propre de certains
dignitaires) nous pourrions rappeler que ce mot figurait déjà dans
l’étiquette impériale avant Constantin.’[28]
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.
Umbrellas formed an important feature in the Greek Bacchic processions.
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.[29] 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
development 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 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.[30]
[Illustration: CINGALESE SĒSATA
(Made of the leaf of the talipot palm, enriched with plates of mica,
the handle lacquered wood; length, including handle, 7 feet.)]
The Cingalese Sēsata, a ceremonial fan for royal and religious use,
or for attendance upon great personages, consists of an embroidered
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 Disvāta (lord chief) on
journeys, convey his orders, carrying the great banner, state umbrella,
and Sēsata.[31] 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.
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.
[Illustration]
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 Langlés 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.
[Illustration: FLY-WHISK
(From a painting on talc. Madras. Nineteenth century.)]
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 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.’[32]
[Illustration: Quill, & Sandal Wood Chauries, Peacock Emblem of
Royalty, Yak, & Ivory Chauries.
India Museum.]
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 ornamental,
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 significance 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 he is accompanied by an attendant bearing this emblem, which
appears in all pictorial or other representations of royalty.
It was, doubtless, in the first instance a fly-flap, and is either
composed entirely of feathers, or, it consists of a bunch of
feathers enclosed two-thirds of the distance in a silver casing,
usually ornamented with an imbricated pattern; the handle also of
silver. Several examples of this object appear in the India Museum,
and numberless representations occur in sculpture, illumination,
embroidery, etc.
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.
[Illustration: EMBLEM OF ROYALTY
(From an illumination of a Court reception by the King of Oudh.)]
The word punkhá, or pankhá, 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 handle set horizontally at its base; and the various
hand-screens, these either composed entirely of peacocks’ feathers,
the breast and 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.
[Illustration: ROYAL STANDARDS
(From a MS. copy of the Akbar-Namah. Sixteenth century.)]
In Persia and Arabia, from the first centuries of our era, fans were
made of ostrich feathers, many being ornamented with that form of
inscription which is such a leading feature of the decorative art of
these countries.
[Illustration: Large Hand Fan of Sandal Wood, Indian. 18th Cent.
pierced & carved.
Mrs Hungerford Pollen.]
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
Buddhist 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.
[Illustration: HAND-FAN
(From the cave paintings at Ajanta.)]
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 foregoing types obtain at the present day, and
are as modern as they are ancient.
[Illustration: PLAITED GRASS-FAN
(From the Amaravati Tope.)]
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;[33] 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.
[Illustration: FLAG-FAN
(From the cave paintings at Ajanta.)]
These fans are of two kinds—rigid and flexible; in 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.
[Illustration: ‘TALAPAT’ FAN
PANKHÂ. (Embroidered velvet, with silver handle. Moorshedabad. India
Museum.)
FROM AN ILLUMINATION]
This form (the reversed heart) is common to both the smaller hand-fans
and the larger ceremonial and processional fans. The natural palm-leaf
is employed, trimmed to the required shape, and used either plain,
or painted in brilliant colours, or forming a base for a covering of
embroidery, feathers or stuffs, as in the example from Moorshedabad
(illustrated), which is of velvet, embroidered with silver.
[Illustration: Flag Fans, split palm & bamboo. 19th. Cent. Beaded Fan,
& Palm Leaf Fan with mica insertions.
India Museum.]
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 Kīrti
Ṡri to the ‘Tooth relic.’[34] Figured in _Mediæval Sinhalese Art_,
A. K. Coomaraswarmy.
In the collection of the Baroness Salomon de Rothschild at Paris is a
fan of jade, richly studded with jewels.
[Illustration: FAN OF GOLD
(Forming portion of the Burmese Regalia. India Museum.)]
Fans are also made of the sweet-scented Khaskhás 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 substances. Fans of talc, decorated with
exquisite illumination, were made at Tanjore during the eighteenth
century. Specimens occur in the India Museum, South Kensington.
[Illustration: 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, pankhá, and two fly-flappers being in evidence.
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 pankhás 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 pankhá, 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 graceful fable of a princess of extreme beauty, who, although
constantly attending and fanning the divine fire with a view to
increasing the prosperity of her father, never succeeded in producing a
flame save by the breath of her charming lips.
[Illustration]
FANS OF THE FAR EAST—_Continued_
CHINA
[Illustration: CIRCULAR FAN
‘Like the Moon’ borne by the guard of an Imperial concubine.]
Chinese authorities are at variance concerning the invention of the
fan, which has been attributed to the Emperor Hsien Yüan, B.C. 2697;
to the Emperor Shun, B.C. 2255, and to the first ruler of the Chou
dynasty, B.C. 1122.
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 ‘Tchéou-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.
[Illustration: Chinese Fan, paper mount, painted, with medallion of The
Visit, stick silver-gilt filigree & enamel, 18th Cent.
Mr M. Tomkinson.]
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 worshipping the god of Longevity, and
constantly figures in pictorial and other representations.
[Illustration: FROM A PAINTED ROLL OF MING DYNASTY
(British Museum.)]
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 peacock; 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.
[Illustration: FAN OF HSI WANG MU
(From a Japanese painting. British Museum.)]
The feather-fan is one of the chief attributes of Hsi Wang Mu, the
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.[35]
[Illustration: WHITE PLUMED FAN OF HSI WANG MU
(From a painting of the Chinese School of Japan. British Museum.)]
Her fan is borne by one of her four handmaidens, who, like the Dêva
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 riū 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.
[Illustration: Chinese Fan. filigree & enamel.
Victoria & Albert Museum.]
The earliest illustrations, however, of this personage and her fan,
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.
[Illustration: PEAR-SHAPED SCREENS
(From 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
commissioners 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.
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 of 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 _Ku yü t’ou pu_, an
illustrated catalogue of ancient jade, in one hundred books, compiled
in 1176 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 Musée
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
instance the design is alternated by an imbrication of peacocks’
feathers. The handles are of carved ivory.
[Illustration: Hand screen, Chinese, painted silk, reverse embroidered
feather work, carved ivory handle.
Mr Wilson Crewdson.]
There are also the cockade screens, usually of ivory or sandalwood.
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 Musée 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 Phœnix, the Ho bird of the Japanese. This is seen in
the painting 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
Phœnixes.[36]
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 tabellæ which the Romans derived from the Greeks, who in turn
received them 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.[37]
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.[38] These Bat
Bu’u are made in three ways—
1. 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.[39]
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 approaching 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 introduction 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 it was the
invention of foreigners, _i.e._ the Japanese, who, together with the
Tartars, possessed folding-fans before they were known in China.[40]
[Illustration: Chinese Fan, paper mount, painted & richly gilt, red
lacquered stick.
Miss Moss.]
M. Rondot records the fact that at first, only courtesans made use of
folding-fans, honest women carried round screens.[41]
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 flat 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 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 lun_, 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 vernicifera_), 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 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.
[Illustration: Lacquered Fan.
Lady Northcliffe]
[Illustration: Carved Ivory Fan, with name ‘Angela’.
Mr W. Burdett-Coutts. M.P.]
Sandalwood is largely employed for fans, on account of its lightness,
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 common 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
workmanship, 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
collection with a subject finely painted on chicken skin by Eugène
André.
Bamboo has already been referred to as in early use. It is extensively
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
consummate 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 China about the thirteenth century. There are two kinds, both
accomplished by the process known as incrustation—cloisonné, 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 champlevé, 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 regulated
by a number of men standing round with large fans in their hands.[42]
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 Phœnix 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 medallions 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 appliqué, 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
[Illustration: Chinese Fan with ivory miniatures
Mr W. Burdett-Coutts. M.P.]
H.I.M. the Empress Eugénie,[43] 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
tortoise-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.[44]
The Chinese have exhausted every species of ingenuity in the
construction of fans of an _outré_ 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,
perforated 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.
[Illustration: Feather Fan, (Argus Pheasant) with embroidered case.
Chinese, early 19th Cent.
Victoria & Albert Museum.]
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 Wên, of the Liang dynasty, A.D. 550,
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’êng 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
attachment 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 expressing 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.’[45]
From this period, in China, a deserted wife has been called an autumn
fan.
FANS OF THE FAR EAST—_Continued_
JAPAN
[Illustration]
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.[46] 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;[47] 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.
[Illustration: Netsuki. The Dai Tengu with feather uchiwa.
Mr W. L. Behrens.]
[Illustration: Dagger Fan.
Mr W. L. Behrens.]
[Illustration: Camp Fan of Eagles Feathers, horn handle.
Mr L. C. R. Messel.]
The early history of the fan in the country of Dai Nippon is
substantially 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 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.
[Illustration: FEATHER-FAN
(From a Japanese painting. British Museum.)]
[Illustration: HAND-SCREEN, BAMBOO HANDLE
(From a Japanese painting. British Museum.)]
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 otherwise 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 Lü T’ung-pin,
a Taorist Rishi of the eighth century, by Go-gaku, nineteenth century,
British Museum, 640. This has a red tassel or tail at the end of the
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 zō dzu-i,’ three hold
fly-whips (futsujin) in their hands. This instrument is also seen in
the right hand of Vimalakîrrti, 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 Kōmori (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 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.
[Illustration: Suye hiro ogi. open & closed, decorated with crests on
a gold ground.
Mr W. Harding Smith]
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.[48]
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 Nō 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 ‘Nō’
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 Akomé 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.
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 Akomé-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 (_Chamæcyparis 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.[49]
Before the age of fifteen a fan of common wood is carried, painted
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.
[Illustration: Court Lady’s Fan. ‘Akomé Ogi’.
Mr. Wilson Crewdson.]
[Illustration: War Fan. ‘Gun Sen.’
Mr W. Harding Smith.]
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_.[50]
Chūkei 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 accomplishment
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.
The leading schools of Japanese painting are the Buddhist,
Yamato-Tosa. Chinese, Sesshiu Kano, Matahei (popular), Korin,
Shijō (naturalistic), 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.
[Illustration: Hotei and the Children. by Kanō Shō-Yei, 1591.
Japanese:
Mr Wilson Crewdson.]
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 Hōfukuji. 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 (!), 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 Kanō Shō-yei,
1591, may be accepted as one of the finest examples of a painted
fan of the Kanō 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-Zō dzu-i_ and other works, that he was an incarnation
of Miroku Bosatsu Mâitrêya, 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 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.[51]
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 Kanō 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.[52] 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 sûtras written on fans and fan leaves exist at
the temples at Yamato, Ôsaka, the Imperial Museum Tôkyô, and elsewhere.
These are copied from the ‘Lotus of the True Law,’ or other Mahâyâna
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 Hikimé 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.
[Illustration: The Tamagawa River. with tea-plant & flying cuckoo. by
Kanō San Raku, 1633.
Japanese:
Mr Wilson Crewdson.]
[Illustration: Japanese War Fans, Gumbai Uchiwa.
Mr L.C.R.Messel.
Mr. W Harding Smith.
Mr W.L.Behrens.]
A fan leaf owned by the Temple of Saikyôji, 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, 1167-1180, the writer of the ‘Lotus of the True Law.’
A similar combination of painting and writing obtained later, and was
practised by Kôyetsu Hon-Ami, the predecessor of Kôrin 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 Kôyetsu school of caligraphy.[53]
A fine example of Kôyetsu in the possession of Baron Ryûichi 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.
Kôyetsu died at Kyoto in 1637, aged eighty-two.
The Ukiyoyé 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.
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 completely 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.
‘Sono toki-koto kazé 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
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.[54]
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 instruments 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 Hokusai’s painting of ‘Tamétomo 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 II. 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.[55] 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,[56] 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 Itsukumisha, 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 (1169-1180), 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 a
well-directed arrow broke the rivet which held the leaves together, and
thus shattered the fan.’
[Illustration: War Fans, Gun Sen.
Mr. W. Harding Smith.
Mr. L. C. R. Messel.]
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,
suspecting the trap, promptly laid his iron fan in the groove, jamming
the shutters, and thus saving himself.[57]
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
seventeenth 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 commemorating 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.[58]
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.
[Illustration: Modern Japanese Fan, Ivory with gilt Lacquer, and
Painted Fan signed Kunihisa.
Mr. W. Tomkinson.]
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 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 considered 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.’[59]
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 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
somewhat 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.[60]
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;[61] 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 kakémonos in
the collection of Mr. R. Phené 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.
[Illustration: Three Chūkei.
Mr L. C. R. Messel.]
[Illustration: Palm Leaf Fan, used by the Great Chiefs, Fiji.
Hide Fan, Nigeria.
British Museum.]
CHAPTER IV
FANS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
[Illustration]
In any survey of the industrial arts of the more primitive nations or
peoples, three facts must be taken into consideration: 1st, 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 presupposes some acquaintance
with the history of the people among whom the art was practised. In
considering, 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 therefore
be divided into three or four distinct types: 1st, 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.
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 pankhás, 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 æsthetic
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.
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.
[Illustration]
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
Horniman 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
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. 1, 2, 3.)
[Illustration: HAWAIIAN ISLANDS]
In the Hawaiian group a spatula shape appears, this also being
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 ‘appliqué’ 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 white leather, and the vermilion perforations forming a
very effective contrast. 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.
[Illustration:
1, 2, 3, 11, 12. SAMOA.
4, 5. BRITISH GUIANA.
6, 7, 8. ECUADOR AND PERU.
9, 10. SOUTH-EASTERN PACIFIC.]
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 procured 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 condescended 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 ceremonies 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 the
Sun, his ancestor, or, as others will have it, his elder brother.’[62]
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.
[Illustration:
Two small Palm Fans. West Africa.
Fly Whisks, Tahiti.
Cockade Fan, with inscription.
Fan of Eagles Feathers, North American Indian.]
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.
[Illustration]
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 interesting 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 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.[63] 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.
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.
[Illustration]
Vegetable fibre of various kinds would appear, indeed, to be the
material most commonly employed for these articles, being, doubtless,
the readiest substance to hand. A remarkable 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.
[Illustration]
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 occasionally bound round
with the same material to form the handle. (Page 81, Nos. 11, 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 forming 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.
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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
Fächer_, Georg Buss. (See p. 106.)
[Illustration: The Tournament, by E. Moreau. Ivory brisé, painted &
gilt.
Victoria & Albert Museum.]
CHAPTER V
THE FLABELLUM AND EARLY FEATHER-FAN
[Illustration: ANGEL WAVING A FLABELLUM (From the Book of Kells.)]
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 flabellum 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 flabellum
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 festivals and at
regular celebrations of mass.[64] 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.
[Illustration: SILVER PROCESSIONAL FLABELLUM (From Butler.)]
Many evidences of its early adoption by the Latin Church are extant.
Moschus (_Prat. Spirituale_, § 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 removed 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.
Spirituale_, § 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,[65] 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, accompanying
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 representatives 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 flabellum typifies the tremor and
astonishment of the angels at our Lord’s Passion.
In a Byzantine fresco at Nekrési (Caucasus), of a date uncertain but
somewhat late, an open sanctuary is represented with two angelic winged
deacons waving seraphic flabella around the head of the second person
of the Trinity.
[Illustration: COPTIC FLABELLUM. (From Butler.)]
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.
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
Saône, south of Chalon, at present in the Carrand collection, Museo
Nazionale, Florence. This remarkable example, which may be taken as
a characteristic type, is formed of a strip of vellum folded _à 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:—
[+] 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.
[+] 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,
ÆSTUS 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 [+] 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, are now in the Musée 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.
[Illustration:
Photo by Alinari.
The Flabellum of Tournus. IX. cent.
Museo Nazionale, Florence.]
[Illustration: Photo by Alinari.
The Flabellum of Tournus, details.
Museo Nazionale, Florence.]
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, 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, 7d.
Item, in pari flabellorum pro le Colpeyt empt. 6d.’
A Salisbury inventory mentions two fans of vellum or other
material.[66] The Chapel of St. Faith in the crypt of old St.
Paul’s possessed, in 1298, a _muscatorium_ or fly-whip of peacocks’
feathers.[67] There is record of a gift to York Minster, between the
years 1393 and 1413, of a silver-gilt handle for a flabellum.[68] In
1346, Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, presented to the cathedral ‘unum
flabellum de serico cum virga eburnea.’[69] In the inventory of the
Chapel of West Exeter, Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, ‘i. muscifugium de
pecock.’[70] In the enumeration of the valuable effects of the deceased
Queen Isabella, daughter of Philippe le Bel, and consort of Edward
II., the following entry appears: ‘De Capella, Duo flagella pro muscis
fugandis.’[71]
[Illustration:
Portion of Ivory Handle of a Flabellum, French, 12th Cent.
Victoria & Albert Museum.
Lower portion of the same handle.
British Museum.
Ivory Fan Handle, Italian, 16th Cent.
Salting Coll^n.
Portion of an Ivory Fan Handle, Italian, XIV.th Cent.
Victoria & Albert Museum.
Capital or node of a Flabellum.
British Museum.
Portion of handle of a Flabellum, 14th Cent.
Salting Coll^n.]
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 Trèves (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 Jumièges, 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.
[Illustration: FROM A GREEK PSALTER. (British Museum.)]
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.[72]
Representations in printed books are still more rare. In Barclay’s
_Ship of Fools of the World_, 1509, 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 me servantur honore:
Pulueris et cariem, plumatis tergo flabellis.’[73]
the word _flabellis_ 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.
[Illustration: ΡΙΠΙΔΙΟΝ
FROM GOAR.]
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, _d’émouchoir_, and Blondel infers from the circumstance, of
Étienne Boileau not referring to it in his _Livre des Mestiers_ (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 I., precept was given to Nicholas
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 I., 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.’[74]
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 facilitate
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, _Archæological Journal_, vol. xiv., on the one side:
[+] ‘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 ...’
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.
[Illustration: 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 15-1/2 inches, the diameter of the leaf 10 inches.
[Illustration: Fan of Queen Theodolinda, VI. cent.
Cathedral of Monza.]
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 Ulféda is a variant of the Saxon
Elpheid, which the marvellous cloisonné 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 fascinating period.
The rigid flag-fan, which appears to have been in intermittent use
in Europe from the early centuries of our era, consists of an oblong
parallelogram with a handle fitted to one of its longer sides. These
were made either of plaited straw of various colours, of linen painted
and embroidered, of parchment or vellum, or of silk, woven or
embroidered, often with lozenge-shaped diapering.
The earliest examples remaining to us are Coptic or Saracenic. M.
Robert Forrer in his _Reallexikon_ figures two which were obtained from
the cemetery of Akhmîn, the Greek Panopolis, presumably belonging to
the fourth-sixth century. Of these, one is finely plaited of brown,
red, and black straw, with a representation of four hearts encircling
a cross, the other of a reticulated diapered pattern with a border
of linen. A similar flag-fan of plaited straw appears in the Berlin
Museum: this example, also, is probably Coptic.
M. Charles de Linas, quoting from the life of St. Fulgentius, sixth
century, affirms that the Bishop of Ruspa, whilst he was a monk and
even an abbot, occupied his leisure hours in copying Holy Writ or in
plaiting ‘fly-flaps’ of palm leaves. This same author[75] figures a
flag-fan from an engraved glass vase, exhumed from the catacombs, and
now preserved in the library of the Vatican, representing the Virgin
Mother seated with the infant Saviour on her lap, a deacon behind
agitating a rectangular flabellum fixed in a lateral handle. The zigzag
ornamentation indicates that this, also, was formed of plaited straw.
[Illustration]
In the Observances of the Augustinian Priory at Barnwell, Cambridge,
‘The Fraterer ought to provide mats and rushes to strew the Frater
and the alleys of the Cloister at the Frater door, and frequently to
renew them; in summer to throw flowers, mint, and fennel into the air
to make a sweet odour, and to provide fans.’ ‘Muscatoria in estate
providere.’[76]
[Illustration: Coptic Fans, Akhmîn.
Ethnological Museum. Berlin.]
The most remarkable example, however, of this banner form is on
a diptich of ivory offered by Charles the Bald to the abbey of
Saint-Corneille de Compiègne, and at present in the Cabinet de
Médailles at Paris. On the inferior compartment of the diptich is a
eunuch (?) holding with both hands a flabellum apparently of metal, the
handle long, thick at the end, and engraved with lines representing
masonry; the top in the form of a turret, from which hangs a cord.
The leaf, in all probability embroidered, has a plain broad border
enclosing a laurel wreath.
The banner form of fan became fashionable with the Venetian women
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These were of two kinds:
the one, of a more ornate character, was used by matrons; the other,
_abanico di novia_, of a delicate whiteness, used only by engaged
maidens or the newly married. An example of the latter occurs in the
portrait of the painter’s daughter Lavinia, by Titian, in the Dresden
Gallery, probably painted in 1555. Titian painted this favourite
daughter some eighteen years later; in this portrait she carries a
feather-fan, the sign of Venetian nobility, Titian having been, in the
interval, created a Count Palatine by the Emperor Charles V.
[Illustration: FROM AN IVORY DIPTICH.
(Cabinet de Médailles, Paris.)]
Authentic examples of these flag-fans are exceedingly rare. A richly
embroidered Venetian fan of the sixteenth century is in the collection
of the Grand Duke Frederick of Baden; another, also Italian, has a
large oval medallion with ornaments of silver and brown, and is in the
collection of Mr. G. J. Rosenberg of Karlsruhe; a third, _abanico di
novia_, of white vellum enriched with Venetian lace of the sixteenth
century, is referred to by Blondel as being in the possession of Madame
Achille Jubinal of Paris.
These fans were probably introduced into the western countries of
Europe by the returning Crusaders. They never, apparently, obtained any
great vogue except in Italy; they continued, however, in intermittent
use until the close of the sixteenth century, when, together with
feather, tuft, and cockade fans, they gradually gave place to the
modern folding-fan which had by this time made its appearance in
Portugal from the Far East.
From the fourteenth century onwards, the history of the fan becomes
more clear, and Blondel quotes a number of French inventories in which
the fan figures—that of the Comptesse Mahaut d’Artois (1316), an
émouchoir with silver handle; of Queen Clémence (1328), an émouchoir
of silk brocade; and also in the will or testament of Queen Johanne of
Évreux (1372), a jewelled émouchoir costing five golden francs.[77]
The cockade form, _à la cocarde_, has been in use during all periods
subsequent to its first introduction from the East in the early
centuries of our era. We have already referred at some length to the
cockade flabella at Tournus and Monza. In an inventory of Charles V. of
France, 1380, we read of ‘un esmouchouer rond, qui se ploye, en yvoire,
aux armes de France et de Navarre, à un manche d’ybenus.’[78]
During the fourteenth century, the long-handled flabellum was also in
use, waved by attendants as at Thebes and Rome. In the inventory above
quoted (Charles V.) occurs—‘Trois bannières, ou esmouchoers, de cuir
ouvré, dont les deux ont les manches d’argent dorez.’ ‘Deux bannières
de France, pour esmoucher le Roy quand il est à Table, semées de fleurs
de lys brodées de perles.’[79]
The feather-fan, also, was in use during this reign, as we learn
from a curious entry in a letter of the Queen—alluding to a criminal
prosecution against some manufacturer of spurious coin—‘Le suppliant
trouva d’aventure un esventour de plumes, duquel il esceuta le feu—où
l’on faisoit la ditte fausse monnoye.’[80]
The feather and tuft fans in use from the twelfth to the sixteenth
centuries and later were formed of the plumes of the peacock, the
ostrich, and the paroquet, dyed various colours: the number of the
feathers varied from three to twenty or more, and were arranged so
as to imbricate the plumes in the gradation of their natural growth.
These were set in handles of carved ivory and the more precious metals,
generally silver, and were often richly jewelled, and suspended
from the girdle by a slender chain. Of their cost we have a hint in
Marston’s satires:
‘How can she keepe a lazie serving-man
And buy a hoode and silver-handled fan
With fortie pound?’
Silver was probably the material of the handle of Mistress Bridget’s
fan in the theft of which Falstaff and his Ancient were implicated.
FALSTAFF. And when Mistress Bridget
Lost the handle of her fan, I took’t upon
Mine honour thou hadst it not.
PISTOL. Didst thou not share? hadst thou not fifteen pence?
References to the silver-handled fan occur commonly in old plays:
‘She hath a fan with a short silver handle,
About the length of a barber’s syringe.’
_The Floire_, 1610.
‘All your plate, Vasco, is the silver handle of
Your old prisoner’s fan.’
_Love and Honour_, Sir W. Davenant, 1649.
‘Another he
Her silver handled fan would gladly be.’
In Marston, _Scourge of Villainie_, lib. III. sat. 8.
The above references are to fans of the ordinary sort; the cost of the
more precious fans of history was considerable. Brantôme (_c._ 1590)
refers to the fan of Queen Eleanor with its mirror all ornamented
with precious stones of great value, and also to the new-year’s gift
of Queen Margaret to Queen Louise of Lorraine—a jewelled fan of mother
of pearl of such beauty and richness that it was valued at more than
fifteen hundred crowns,[81] a sum equal to a thousand pounds of our
present money.
The employment of the fan as fire-screen is indicated by the new-year’s
gift to Queen Mary of England in 1556, when she received ‘seven fannes
to kepe the heate of the fyer, of strawe, the one of white silke.’
Queen Elizabeth’s partiality for fans is historic, and it is upon
record that she regarded a fan as a suitable gift for a queen.
Leicester’s new-year’s gift in 1574 is recorded: ‘A fan of white
feathers set in a handle of gold, garnished on one side with two very
fair emeralds, and fully garnished with diamonds and rubies; the other
side garnished with rubies and diamonds, and on each side a white bear
[his cognisance] and two pearls hanging, a lion ramping with a white
muzzled bear at his foot.’
Among the new-year’s gifts, 1588-9:—
‘By the Countess of Bath, a fanne of Swanne downe, with a maze of
gilene Velvet, ymbrodered with seed pearles and a very small chayne
of silver gilte, and in the middest a border on both sides of seed
pearles, sparks of rubyes and emerods, and thereon a monster of gold,
the head and breast mother of pearles.
‘By a Gentleman unknown, a fanne of sundry collored fethers, with a
handle of aggets garnished with silver gilte.’
[Illustration: Feather Hand-Screen, Queen Anne.
Mr L. C. R. Messel.]
In 1589, ‘a fanne of ffethers, wh
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