The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-02
TIE FIRST FAN.
Louisa Parr Writes About II, and
About Others.
From HarDer's Magazine.

From HarDer's Magazine
In his entertaining preface to the Cata-
logue of the Fan Makers Exhibition at
Diapers hall in 1878, George Augustus
Sala says, ''If thorn was the first needle,
no doubt palm leaf was the first fam" and
ancient monuments show us that such
natural objects a. the palm leaf aud the
birds wing were originally adapted to
this use. To tie present day at shops deal
ing in eastern produce may be- purchased
palm leaf faus exactly similar to those we
see figured on monuments dating from long
before the christian era. FrescOes on tie
temple of MedineC- Hahan at Thebes repre-
sent Rameses Ill. Whose reign began 1885
b. e. accompanied by princes bearing
screen-shaped fans. These fans we're semi
circular in shape, painted in brilliant colors.
with long handles twisted or party-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 we're
also in general 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 chris
tlan era. Screen fans are mentioned as
being in use in China about the same date
and, as in Egypt, they were carried as
standards in war The earliest kinds,
made of feathers, were royal or imperial
gifts. Later on white and embroidered
silk was apparently used, for We find It's
application to this purpose forbidden in 4O5
A. d. Ivory had been employed at an ante
rlor date, and IN the early part of the chris.
tan era Chinese workman whose name is
handed down as Chiki-long, WAS renowned
fpr ,tat, h., l.,
by beating out a sheet of gold to excessive
thinness. He then painted them with gods,
with extraordinary birds and with
rare animals; vanished them and
covered them with transparent sheets
Of mica" The fan is mentioned by E ri
pides, Virgil, Ovid, etc, and it is fire.
quently 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 fans
was introduced from Asia Minor, and was
readily adopted by the Greek women A
fresco at Herculaneum depicts an ostrich
feather fan. The "tabellae" 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 made semicircular
or tail-shaped, could be folded They were
either attached TO long handles like the
Chinese and Egyptian war fans, or to small
handles for the convenience of personal use
With the last of the Caesars the screen
fan disappears from Europe, not to reap
pear until the time of the Crusades, when
the hag-shaped fan, probably of Saracenic
origin, was introduced, and continued in
use in Venice, Naples and Padua
In the meantime christianity had trans
muted the fan into an instrument of
devotion. st. Jerome had named it as the
emblem of chastity, and henceforth it took
its place in the sanctuary, where at the
altar it served to keep flies from the chaIice
aud the suns rays from the celebrant. The
''habellumn thus used has come down to us
in actual specimens-such as the flabelum
of the Abbey of TOurnus, figured in NJ. du
Sommerards work. The fabelum is also
mentioned IN many inventories, notably
one Of silk at Salisbury, A. d. 1914 one in
peacocks' feathers at St Paul's cathedral,
1895. 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 fabelum
were the earliest fans of peacocks feather
worn by ladies'. Such fan is held by
Maria Louisa de Tassis in her portrait by
| Van Dyck.
| These fans are known TO have been of
considerable value worth $40 or.more. The
handles were of ivory or of GOD, worked
and jeweled. The feathers were ostrich,
| peacock, or some other bright plumage, and
the fan hung by slender chain from the
heavier girdle then worn around the waist.
This mode of hanging the fan continued
fashionable to the seventeenth century.
In illuminated manuscripts of the thir-
teeath and fourteenth centuries may be
seen flag fans similar in form to that in use
in Tunis to this day, and in an inventory
of Charles V. of France, dated 1880, we
read for the first time of "ttn eSmoucho ir
rond Qm Sc ptage, en Quoire, aur a,naes
de France ct de Ndcurre, Ynanche
d'ybenus." Folding screens of this shape
were used until the reign Of Francis /. ,
when they gave way to folding fans more
Or less of the shape we nog use.