"Costumes It is rather singular that, in Herbe's Françaises," the fan does not make its appearance till between 1540 and 1550, although it is stated, on good authority, that as early as 1522 the master fan-makers made one of the Companies of Arts and Manufactures of Paris and its environs; a circumstance which proves that even at this period the business had become one of considerable importance. It was not until many years subsequent to the first East Indian voyage from this country, which was in 1591, that the folding fan of the Orientals superseded the ever-open ones of our ancestral fashionables; and though Herbé has placed one in the hands of a demoiselle so early as the time of Catherine de Medicis, other authors date their introduction into France to the return of some missionaries from China, in the reign of the luxurious Louis Quatorze. The quaint and elaborate carving of the Chinese, till within the last few years, was better known to our sex through the medium of the card-case and fan, than from any other articles of commerce; and exquisitely as the tiny watch-spring saw used by the French artificers enables them to work the most delicate designs in the bone, or ivory, or mother-of-pearl brins of the French fan, the miracles of minutiæ effected in the same space by the patient craftsmen of the Celestial Empire, surpass whatever European fan-makers have hitherto executed in this branch of their art; and, at the present time, China may be considered the only country that prevents the French from enjoying a monopoly in the mauufacture of this article. Madame de Genlis, who appears to imagine the fan a pure invention of French modesty, informs us that prior to the Revolution it was worn of a large size, and served the ladies who often blushed at once for a veil and a countenance. "By agitating the fan," continues the Mother of the Church, "the female concealed herself. In the present time ladies blush but little, and are not at all timid; they have no desire whatever to conceal themselves, and they carry only invisible fans" (des éventails imperceptibles). The marriage of James the Second with the princess of "La Mère de l'Eglise," a name given to Madame de Genlis, on the occasion of her publishing "La Religion Considerée." Modena, maintained for our subject the popularity it had gained in the preceding reign; but it was not until the latter part of that of Anne, in 1709, that it became of sufficient importance as a branch of national manufacture, to bring about the incorporation of the Fan Makers' Company in London. During this queen's reign, which may be called the "golden age" of fan-making, as well as of some other matters, this "ornamental trinket" was used by women of almost every degree, "to hide their faces at church, and to cool them by gently exciting the air, in sultry weather and close places.' It was, indeed, the high tide of the fan's fashion, no lady's dress being complete, whether at ball or supper, morning promenade or evening drive, unless one hand held the indispensable fan, which was either painted or composed of feathers. High art was at this period occasionally employed in ornamenting them; and amongst other exquisite specimens with which our researches for this paper have acquainted us, we were shown, at an elegant repository of antique fans, one, the mount of which, representing a Greek wedding, was painted in those days by Watteau. Arcadian scenes, such as the French painters still often choose with which to decorate them, appear to have been the most usual subjects; and Addison, in his charming paper on the exercise of the fan,* alludes, in his paragraph on unfurling it, to the effect of this manœuvre, discovering on a sudden an infinite number of Cupids, garlands, altars, birds, beasts, and rainbows. We were treated the other day to the sight of one that, if not Watteau's, looked very like his; it represented a trio in a triumphal car in the centre, drawn by lions led by Cupids, with nymphs dancing, with musical instruments before them, and others scattering fruits and flowers in the path. But occasionally, less poetical subjects were chosen, and in the reign of George the Second we find a fan-painter, named Loggan,† sketching, for his professional purpose, from the windows of his house, at the south end of the walk at Tunbridge Wells, the most remarkable characters that appeared amongst the * "Spectator," No. 102. He had been dwarf to the Prince and Princess of Wales, and, in spite of his diminutive size, appears to have been a person of considerable intellect. company, with such fidelity, Richardson tells us, that they were immediately recognised by their forms. It was in Addison's time that the discipline of the fan appears to have reached its perfection; the constant use of it familiarized ladies with all those graceful and coquettish motions of which the instrument is capable; and by many allusions in the writings of the period, it appears to have been almost as dangerously fascinating in the hands of English ladies then, as it still is in those of the Spanish donnas. "Women," says the essayist, "are armed with fans, as men with swords, and sometimes do more execution with them"-an expression playfully seconded in his chapter on the "Mother of Poetry," by one or two cases on a list of metaphorical deaths, one of which reports, "Tim Tattle killed by the tap of a fan on his left shoulder by Coquetilla, as he was talking carelessly with her in a bow-window;" while Sylvius is shot through the sticks of one at St. James's Church. These are precisely such effects (figuratively speaking) as the novelists are fond of giving to the fan in the hands of a Spanish lady, who to a natural grace of action and consummate practice in the use of the implement (which, from her third year, is scarcely ever out of her hand), adds all those piquant arts which the love of coquetry and the consciousness of surveillance inspires. After the French revolution of 1789, the manufacture of fans fell almost wholly into English hands, and both the American and Spanish markets were, for the most part, supplied by English makers. The only peculiarities of the Spanish fan are its size and shape (the half circle we at present make use of), and the necessity, in technical phrase, of its playing easily. Without this virtue, however otherwise attractive, it would not please the Iberian dames, who never use more than one hand in practising the fan, its evolutions for the most part being effected by the turn of the wrist, so that any stiffness of the rivet which confines the radiants at the base, would of course preclude this ease of motion, and the graceful effects consequent upon it. The battle of Waterloo appears to have been as fatal to this branch of manufacture in England, as the revolution had been in France. With the peace, this branch of art, in common with others, began to revive at Paris and elsewhere. The scattered artificers returned to their ateliers, and French fans, not only from their elegance, but comparative cheapness, extinguished the English trade. In point of fact, there are no fan-makers in London; those who call themselves so, simply dealing in the article, which is imported from China and France. The largest manufactory in Paris not long since was that of M. Duvelléroy. This house alone employed more than two thousand men, and fans are manufactured in it from the value of a halfpenny to several thousand francs each; yet the commonest of these, as well as the most costly, passes through the hands of fifteen individuals, before it is ready for use or for the retailer. Not only the different parts which compose the fan, but those parts themselves, give occasion for à division of labour; the leaf, which is sometimes simple, but more frequently made of two pieces pasted together, passes through the hands of the printer, paster, colorist, and painter, before it is mounted—this last operation being usually performed by women; the process of plaiting is executed by means of a board, cut for that purpose, on the principle of a crimping machine, upon the exactness of which the perfection of the fan in folding depends. Beside mounting, the fan passes in the women's workshop through the hands of the borderer, who fixes the edge; the borderess, who finishes it; and, finally, through those of the examiner, who minutely scrutinizes every part of the work. the In the meanwhile, the other portions of the toy have given employment to no less than seven individuals; handle, or wood, as it is indifferently called, which forms the frame of the fan, and upon the radiants of which the leaf is pasted, has passed from the smoother who planes, to the fashioner who cuts it out, then to the finisher who polishes it; afterwards to the carver, who cuts the designs on the ivory, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, ebony, horn, or any other material of which the handle is formed. It is then handed to the engraver, who ornaments the metal, after which it passes from the gilder to the riveter, who fastens the two outside ends (which the French call the panache), and the brins, or radiants, with a rivet passing through the base of them all; sometimes set with diamonds or other precious stones, or it may be gold, or mother-ofpearl, or simply wood, according to the price of the article, In the latter part of the eighteenth century, sun-fans made of green silk or paper, and of an immense size, were worn instead of parasols, and for a time gave considerable employment to the manufacturers; while the spangled fans, so popular in the young days of our mammas, afforded a respectable livelihood to numbers of the fair sex-an income of from fifty to sixty pounds per annum being easily earned at it. Female reigns have always proved auspicious to our subject. It grew into vogue in that of Elizabeth; reached the climax of its popularity with us in that of Anne; and why may we not hope for the revival of its manufacture in that of Victoria, the noble patroness of art and science? KEY TO THE "MENTAL PICTURES” I.-Genesis xxi. 22-34. II.-2 Sam. xix. 15-37. III.-Jeremiah xlii. 8; and xliii. 1-3. CHARADE. In my first half we find a town so fair, Her name in blessings doth the heart upraise. My last's a bird of night that cheers the darksome hours, Whom love to God and man in youth made bold, With hallowed radiance round the bed of death to shine. CLARISSA. |