Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-09-05
FACTS ABOUT FANS.
Wonderful Specimens Mentioned in II
torv mr. Exhibited In Muaaums

Al hi' entertaining proidCo w oho
catalogue of the an-makers exhibit
ton at Diapers Hall in 1878, Mr..
George Augustus Sala says: IF a
thorn was the first needle no doubt a
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 Rameses III. (whose reign began
1885 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.
Hand-screen fans made of leaves and
Of ostrich feathers were also in gen.
eral use. In the British Museum may
be seen specimens with half yard-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-
broidered 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 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 she ct
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 feather fan.
was introduced from Asia Minor, ani
was readily adopted by the Greek
women. A fresco at Herculaneum de
picts an ostrich feather fan. The
"tabelle" mentioned by Ovid ant
Propertius were hand screens of thir
wood; at times these were trimmed
with feathers.
l But none of these screen fans, larg,
or small, whether made of feathers, o
leaves Of ivory or OF gold. whether
semi-circular or tail-shaped, could b,
I folded. They were either attached t,
long handles, like the Chinese an,
Egyptian war fans, or to small han
i dies for the convenience of persona
USE
With the last of the Caesars tn
screen fan disappears from Europe
not to reaper until the time of tn
: Crusades, when the fag-shaped fan
d probably OF Saracenic origin, was in
g troduced, and continued in use in Ven
It ice, Naples and Padua.
1t In the meantime Christianity ha
n transmitted tho fan into an instrumen
IS OF devotion. st. Jerome had named
y as the emblem Of chastity. and hence
II forth it took its place in the sanctuary
where at the altar it served to kee
= flies from the chalice and the sun
D rays from the celebrant. The "dal
elum" thus used has come down t
!" us in actual specimens rs tn
Aabellum of the Abbey of Tournus, fis
l. uTcu III Nls uu WOtf
The flabellum is also mentioned
many inventories, notably one OF sill
ID at Salisbury, A. ID. 1914: one in pc,
K cocks feathers at st. PauIs Cathedra
es 1895. They continued in general us
10 until the end of the thirteenth centur,
or and still form one of the most marke
g. features in all grand papal ceremonie
to Closely related in shape to Il
Up fabellum were the earliest fans
IN peacocks' feathers worn by ladie
be Such fan is held by Maria Luisa {
er Tassis in her portrait by Van Dyck.
ID These fans are known to have bee
nd of considerable value. worth f40
W more. The handles were of ivory
of gold, worked and jeweled II
as feathers were ostrich, peacock or son
nd other bright plumage, and the ID
hung by slender chain from Il
It heavier girdle then worn round Il
waist. This mode Of hanging the (,
hs continued fashionable to the seve
?" teenth century.
In illuminated manuscripts of &
is thirteenth and fourteenth centuri
oh may be seen flag fans similar in for
uff to that in use in Tunis to this day. a.
he in an inventory of Charles the Fiji
I'll Of France, dated 1880. we read for {
all first time of "un esmouchoir rond Q
nd Sc playe. en- Quoire, aux armes
hit France ct de Navarro, manc
ne d'ybenus. Folding screens OF u
ng shape were used until the reign
ily Francis the First, when they gave W
lad to folding fans more or less of I
VS.. shape we now use -Louisa Parr,
Ich Harper's Magazine.
lad CASTOR Calmette says that Mill
ras the painter of The Angelus." v