The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1888-02-04
rHEFAN.
How Il Has Been Used In Ancient and Nod.
ern Times Among the People OF ysfieus
Nationa

At the basaae of the Female School
OF Art, Queen square, says The London
Telegraph, are exhibited some exquis.
itely painted fans, the work of students
OF the school. Such a fan, it Is stated,
her majesty tho queen, the most illus
trious of collectors and amateurs, in
tends to give the Princess Beatrice on
the occasion of her marriage. Judg.
ing by the reputation of those who are
intrusted with carrying out the royal
commands, the work when completed
should deserve to rank with the best
specimens of the art in its paln,iess
days of the seventeenth Century.
Those who take an interest in fas-
cinating subject, which from time to
time has employed the genius of many
of the most skillful painters, versifiers
aud handicraftsmen of Europe ever
since the Renaissance, will not fail TO
remember that the delightful loan ex>
hibition of fans at South Kthsington
in the year 1870 was actually initiated
and largely supported by the queen
During the past fifteen years there
have been other exhibitions of the kind
but the catalogue of the first Kensing-
ton loan collection still keeps it's place,
and is most highly priced by amateurs
1t is no uncommon complaint that
gentlewomen obliged by necessity to
earn q living find few paths open to
their enterprise. Yet, if the oft neg
lected and oft revived fashion of usiiig
painted fans were to ecma in again,
owing to an impetus given from the
highest quarter, another and a wide
field would be afforded to female labor.
In Partisan directory of about q
century and quarter ago the master
lawmakers number $50, and each mas
ter must have employed large GUAM
tity of educated artists and Ingenious
artisans to supply the immense de-
mand of the time for such beautiful
trifles. AS matter of course, Tile
lady students of the Slade school, in
Queen square, and at South Kensing-
ton, and the innumerable schools of
design scattered up and down the
country, could not acquire the delicate
touch of the true fah-painter without
some natural aptitude, and consid-
cradle amount of patience and close
application. LII, however, wealthy |
ladies would but follow the leade of
the first lady in the land, and the
market were there, the rest would |
follow. England abounds in magnifi-
cent specimens of the best period of |
the Partisan fancultus. For this rea-
son, when the noble and gentle emf |
grants, driven from France by the
horrors and rigors of the revolution,
sought shelter on our shores the |
ladies brought their Jewels and their |
fans along with them, and afterward |
the poverty, not the will, of the pos
SCISSORS induced them to part with their |
loved treasures for garment and q |
meal. In this way history plays |
strange freaks. According to Brillat
Savarin, the elegant emigrcss from
the salons of Marie Anto,nette-her- |
self passionate fan amateur-were
fain to teach dancing and cooking to |
keep the wolf frem the door; and we |
are supposed to owe something of our |
saltatory grace, besides the way to |
mix salad and fold an omelette, to |
"the red fool-fury of the Seine" which |
cut off the heads of king and queen
only to bow the knee to consul and |
emperor. Not that fans, and very
beautiful ones, were unknown in Eng
land before Vatican and Lancret,
Pater, Lemoine, Fragonard, Boucher,
Grayelot, elliot, or Moreau the young
er made the French school illustrious.
Shakspear, Ben johnson, Hall, Mas
singer, Gay. and Addison are in evil
dence to the contrary.
Among the gifts presented to Queen
Elizabeth on her accession was fan
contained in the haft of "meat-
knife, the offering, by the way, of |
the court cutler. Shakespeare con-
stantly introduced the fan which gives
occasion for some most laug6able
comic business in one of the lighter
scenes of Romeo and Juliet" What
middle-aged play goer does not re-
member Mrs. Stirling as the Nurse to
the Peter of Mr.. Blackstone, in the
cast, when Adelaide Nelson was the |
brightest and most fascinating of Ju-
LETS? Who was Mrs. Bridget, the
lady who lost the handle of her tan in |
The Merry Wives of Windsor?" The |
bard sugg ests that the article fetched |
half crown, and that Ancient Pistol |
had Is pence of the plumber. Could
Mrs. Bridget, mentioned only by |
name. and only once, have been any
relative of the French gentleman
whom Hamlet beat at the foils prior
to the return of Laertes in rebellion to
the court of Denmark also referred |
to by name, yet never seenP Silver
handled fans were the rage when
Shakespeare was young man. Ben
Jonson speaks of the least feather"
of lady's "beauteous FAM" and Mas
singer, in 1.-The Bondman," has:
'tRavish feather from mistress
fan and wear it as favor" With
very few exceptions, the early En-
glish fans were more or less like the
Thy happers of the east, where all the
decorative arts had their cradle. Ac-
cording to Blondel and Octave Uzanne,
among the best authorities on the SUBJ
jcct, the origin of the fan is lost in the
mists of the past. 1t often crops up
in ancient Buddhist literature as an
old-fashioned article of daily use, and
was known in China when our ances-
tors for their only garment wore u
coat of paint Both in China and ia
pan the fan has always been employ
ed as an instrument OF command. A
famous general used to direct three
army corps at one and the same time
with the motions of his fan-a piece
of information suggestive of the light
cane which, instead of word, our
Chinese" Gordon, the hero and the
victim of Khartoum, was accustomed
to carry into action. Among the Ce-
lostials the fan is utilized as a stand
ard and a rallying point in battle, and
serves the military mandarin in place
of that most famous orifamme, the
helmet of Navarro. Only month or
so ago, at the burned down Japanese
exhibition at Humphreys hall, the
stage manager directed the move
ments of the wrestlers and the Jug
glers with the motion of his fan. In
quite another school, and totally
different objects, the Spanish ladies
understand better than the women of
any other nation the silent language
of this pretty toy. There every wo-
man, from princess to peasant, pos
sesses a fan and knows how to use it
as part of her artillery of conquest.
A traveller of the last century on his