A rare articulated fan

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Details

A rare articulated fan
the leaf painted with lovers in the Garden of Love, watched by a lady whose ivory face changes from a young lady to an old hag by means of a lever concealled at the back of the fan, and four panels painted with flowers, the reserves of catgut forming large spy-holes, the verso painted with a man carrying a basket, four panels of flowers and a border of flowers, the ivory sticks carved, pierced and painted with figures with a birdcage and with flowers, the upper articulated guardsticks set with three male portraits, which change to three female portraits when a concealed lever is pushed up, the lower articulated guardstick also set with three male portraits, including a clown and a man blowing bubbles, which change to female portraits when the concealled lever is slid down - 10.5in. (26.5cm.), French, circa 1770 - in 18th century fan box

See Illustration on front cover

Literature

There is only one other comparable fan known, with both articulated sticks and leaf, in Tunbridge Wells Museum, Kent.
There is a similar fan but with different painted vignettes, and no articulated slide to the central scene, only the triple ariticulated heads on the guardsticks, in the Victoria and Albert Museum T.19-1939, illustrated pl.14, Fans, Avril Hart and Emma Taylor, 1998.
Another similar fan, with no articulation at all, is illustrated Eventails, Francoise de Perthuis and Vincent Maylen, Paris 1989,p.46

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

There is one other 18th century fan "Le (sic) Eventail Necromantique' also with a slide concealled in the leaf operated by a lever concealled at the back but it was very different in style, and did not have articulated sticks, sold at Christie's South Kensington, 13 December, 1994, lot 145.

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