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| Chinese Fan with Lacquer Box 1850-1860 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
Made between 1850 and 1860, this fan is supported by sticks of gold-painted lacquer. The leaf is a blend of paper and silk. Each side of the leaf features a different scene: on one side, flowers and birds are depicted; while on the other, a fantastical Chinese garden scene has been rendered. The faces of the figures are of applied ivory with applied silk for their clothes.
This fan was exported to England from either Canton (Guangzhou) or India. Such fans were brought into Europe in the tens of thousands, and the more expensive examples were supplied with their own box. In this case, the box of lacquered wood is more luxurious than the fan itself.
Fans like this one were made for the mass market and were often produced in an assembly line style of manufacture. The speed with which this fan was manufactured is are clear when one notices that the tiny ivory faces have been haphazardly applied to the fan. In fact, in some cases, the female faces have been stuck on to male bodies.
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| Reverse. |
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