History of the Fan

97. MEDALLION FAN. German. GIVEN BY H.R.H. THE DUKE OF COBURG TO H.R.H. THE PRINCESS VICTORIA, 1836. H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 200

In the beginning, before the human advent, when the earth was peopled only by the Immortals, a bright son was born to Aurora, whose soft and agreeable breath was as honey in the...

The word fan, or van, is derived from the Latin _vannus_, the Roman instrument for winnowing grain. This winnowing-fan, held sacred by all the peoples of the ancient world, toge...

It is difficult for the Western mind to realise the degree of importance assumed by the fan, the fly-flap, and the umbrella, in the countries of the Far East, especially India;...

In any survey of the industrial arts of the more primitive nations or peoples, three facts must be taken into consideration: 1st, climatic conditions; 2nd, the natural products...

The Christian Church was quick to perceive the utility of the fan as an instrument of religious ceremonial, imparting to this object a mysterious importance, a sacerdotal distin...

The establishment of the Portuguese as a conquering power in the far East dates from the first expedition of Vasco da Gama in 1497. Five years earlier, Christopher Columbus had...

The so-called Renaissance of the arts of France in the sixteenth century was the outcome of an increased knowledge of, and familiarity with, Italian ideals of life, and the sple...

The history of the folded fan in England may, broadly speaking, be said to date from the establishment of the East India Company in 1600; this event marking the commencement of...

The practice of engraving fans, begun tentatively in Italy by Agostino Carracci in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and in France by Callot somewhat later, did not beco...

In England the fan’s comments on the public events of the eighteenth and the latter years of the preceding century begin with a satirical allusion to the intrigues of European d...

We now gather together the various threads of our subject at the point where they were left, viz. the close of the Empire. We have found that during two centuries and a half—fro...