Lot Essay
The acrobats are taken from a drawing and the background is known in many painted versions. The fan painter probably used prints. The etching by G.B. Brustolon, plate 1 Feste Dongali is the obvious source
Details
A fan, the chickenskin leaf painted with The Piazza di San Marco, Venice after Canaletto, one to right is depicted a group of performing acrobats, on the left a peregrinic theatre, the verso with an evening view of Venice, the ivory sticks carved with figures from the Comedia del Arte, painted, lacquered and gilt - 12 in., mid-18th century (worn); and a copy of G. Woolliscroft Rhead, History of The Fan, 1910
See colour plate 10 (2)
See colour plate 10 (2)
Provenance
Robert Walker, Uffington, Berkshire, sold lot 462, Sothby Wilkinson & Hodge, 10 June, 1882, illustrated plate 52 to Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Purhcased by Henry S. Eelles in 1945 from Seabury Burdett Coutts who had inherited it.
Literature
Rhead, G. Woolliscroft, History of The Fan, 1910, p. 125 and colour plae facings, described as the property of Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P., Illustrated in Old Fans from Mrs. R. Walker's Cabinet, n.d., circa 1880, plate 52 on silk.