Rudiments

If you are a beginner in fan knowledge, we hope you shall learn something here, and get some pleasure. If you are a "connoisseur", sure you shall find some fan or english mistakes : please tell us ! But, at first, please have a look at our "Place de l'Eventail pavement', where you will find details from a choice of our fans. Then, come back to these "rudiments", or browse elsewhere on the site.

 

Above a detail of a fan... We renew it according to our mood,  "sans rime ni raison, pour le plaisir des yeux" !

 "Natural" fan

	I	It's doubtless that Man and Woman used first natural elements for cooling, chasing insects, fanning fire or protecting against heat . After, he/she ingeniously decorated, trnasformed or reproduced these items. Here is a bone indonesian fan, carved with a god. accueil back home
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 Rigid fan

		After having taken what Nature gave him, and having transformed palms, bones etc., Man created fanning objects, which at first where rigid, and generally called screens or flags (when so shaped). Here is an example (XXth century) from Indonesia, with buffalo horn and skin. accueil back home
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Feathers fan

		It's quite sure that seing birds moving their wings helped our ancestors to imagine fixed or (later) folding feathers fans. There was one in Tut Ank Amon grave, not very differnt from the fan you see on this advertising card (ca 1910)   accueil back home
	étage au dessus

  

Jenny Lind fan

		Having seen wings and feathers fans... somebody one day thought about this kind of fan... (here an ad fan for "Pavillon Royal" restaurant, in Paris Bois de Boulogne, which is of the "Palmettes" (or "Jenny Lind" ?) kind, and "découpé", i.e. pierced of a lot of small holes, reproducing some lace, as some XVIIIth century fans did. accueil back home
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Brisé fan

		From palms or feathers, connected together by their basis, the logical evolution towards a fan made of various solid material plates is easy to imagine. This type of fan may be encountered at various times and in various places. This one has ivory painted and pierced sticks, dates from the beginning of XVIIIth century, is undoubtedly French, and alas has somewhat underwent the ravages of time.   accueil back home
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Folding fan

The folded fan is the most widespread shape of the fan. Although certain brisé fans appear among most beautiful (and most expensive), the folded fan represents, by its complexity of execution, the diversity of its materials and the number of different workers involved, the large variety of its sizes, presentations, manufacturing processes, the typical fan. This is the kind of fan that spontaneously most people imagine, as well in Occident as in Far East. This one, realized in France at the beginning of the century, represents Sarah Bernhardt in " L'Aiglon" ("the Eaglet ") (by Edmond Rostand) accueil back home

 

Fan parts

 

		panache : guard bout : ribs  feuille : leaf gorge tête : head bélière : loop brins : sticks rivure : rivet
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Fan materials

		The fan needs, in its manufacture, an infinity of various materials, which are sometimes difficult to recognize. We shall quote here only the principal ones - for mounting : ivory bone mother-of-pearl turtle shell horn wood metal precious or not, plain, carved or in filigree reconstituted ivory above materials, imitated by synthetic materials (sometimes very well) and, in particular, for the recent time, the celluloid Please see HERE, ABOUT WOOD STICKS, (thanks to Helen Akitt) an interesting article published in the Fan Circle International bulletin (summer 2008)  - for the leaf : more or less fine skin, from leather (certain Austrian fans in particular) until the very fine italian cabretille paper, in its various qualities (extreme for certain japanese fans, very poor for certain XXth century printed fans) fabric, in particular silk (alas fragile and made breakable by the undergone processing) lace: see some interesting examples, on a website dedicated to this matter : éventails de M.C.D. here also, possibility of combination of various materials and various applications of spangles, foil, straw, feathers, etc accueil back home
Above : carved and gilt ivory guard backed by a mother-of-pearl "burgau"		up

Cockade fan

		The fan of the origins, the " flabellum " (see the historic insight), had the shape of a rosette or cockade. You can find some at every period. An alternative was imagined in the 20th century, with the " sun-screen" or "frou-frou " fans looking like lampions, as this specimen carried out for Veuve Amiot sparkling Saumur. Other cockades fans, with printed leaves, were, without known reason, called " Vents du Nord" (North Winds ) in the catalogue of Chambrellent, the most significant advertising eventaillist of the inter-war period.
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Read also, for a short view Fan : the Encyclopaedia Brittanica article		and follow us next page
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