Thomas County cat., 1889-09-05
FACTS ABOUT FANS.
! "enderful SPecimeas Mentioned In HE.
tory or Exhibited In Musoums.


tory or Exhibited In Museums.
In his entertaining preface to the
catalogue Of the lawmakers exhibi-
ton at Drapers' Hall in 1873. Mr..
George Augustus Sala says: IF q
thorn was the first needle no doubt q
palm leaf was the first FAM" and
ancient monuments show US that such
natural objects as the palm leaf and
the birds wing were originally adapted
to this use. To the present day at shops
dealing in Eastern produce may be
purchased palm-leaf fans exactly sim
liar to those We see figured on monu-
ments dated from long before the
Christian era Frescoes on the temple
OF Medinet-Hahan at Thebes repre-
sent Kameses III. (whose reign began
1875 b. CO. accompanied by Princes
bearing screen-shaped fans. These
fans were semi-circular in shape,
painted in brilliant colors. with long
handles twisted or parti-colored.
They served as standards, and were
borne only by royal Princes, or men
OF high rank and approved bravery.
dand-screen fans made Of leaves and
OF ostrich feathers were also in gem
eral use. In the British Museum may
be seen specimens with alfyard-long
wooden handles.
In India the earliest fans were Of
palm leaves. In Persia and among the
Arabs ostrich-feather fans were in use
early in the Christian era Screen
fans are mentioned as being in use in
China about the same date that
Rameses III. was reigning In Egypt,
and. as in Egypt, they were carried as
standards in war. The earliest kinds,
made of feathers. were royal or i'm
perial gifts. Later on white and EN-.
bcoidered silk was apparently used,
for We find its application to this pur-
pose forbidden in 405 A. D. Ivory
had been employed at an anterior date.
and in the early part Of the Christian
era a Chinese workman whose name
is handed down as Chi-ki-lons. was re-
nowned for screen-shaped hand fans,
which he made by beating out sheet
of gold to excessive thinness. He
then painted them with gods. with ex-
traordinary birds and with rare ami
mails; vanished them and covered
them with transparent sheets of mica"
The fan is mentioned by Euripides,
Virgil, Ovid, ETC.. and it is frequently
to be found figured on Etruscan vases.
Boettiger states that the earliest Greek
screen fans were shaped like the plane-
tree leaf. But in the fifth century B.
c. the fashion of peacock-f feather fans
was introduced from Asia Minor. and
was readily adopted by the Greek
women. A fresco at Herculaneum de-
picts an ostrich-feather fan. The
''tabella" mentioned by Ovid and
Propertius were hand screens of thin
wood; at times these were trimmed
with feathers.
But none of these screen fans, large
or small, whether made of feathers, of
leaves of ivory or of gold. whether
semi-circular or tail-shaped. could be
folded. They were either attached to
long handles. like the Chinese and
Egyptian war fans. or to small han
dies for the convenience of personal
USE
With the last Of the Caesars the
screen fan disappears from Europe,
not to reaper until the time of the
Crusades, when the fag-shaped fan.
probably Of Saracenic origin. was in
troduced. and continued in use in Ven
ice. Naples and Padua.
In the me antime Christianity had
transmitted the far into an instrument
of devotion. St jerome had named it
as the emblem of chastity. and hence
forth it took its place in the sanctuary,
where at the altar it served to keep
flies from the chalice and the suns
rays from the celebrant. The "dab-
ellum" thus used has come down to
us in actual specimens-such as the
habellum of the Abbey of Tournus. fig
ured in NJ du Sommerard's work.
The flabellum is also mentioned in
many inventories. notably one of silk
at Salisbury, A D. 1914: one in pea
cocks feathers at st. Paurs Cathedral.
1926. They continued in general use
until the end of the thirteenth century,
and still form one of the most marked
features in all grand papal ceremonies.
Closely related in shape to the
fabellum were the earliest fans OF
peacocks' feathers worn by ladies.
Such fan is held by Maria Luisa de
Tassis in her portrait by Van Dyck.
These fans are known to have been
of considerable valre. worth f4O or
more. The handles were of ivory or
of gold, worked and jeweled. The
feathers were ostrich. peacock or some
other bright plumage. and the fan
hung by q slender chain from the
heavier girdle then worn round the
waist This mode of hanging the fan
continued fashionable to the seven
teenth century.
In illuminated manuscripts Of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries