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Chinoiserie silk and ivory fan

Image attached to M.136-1985

An image of Folding fan. Production Place: England and France. On the silk obverse is a chinoiserie figurative scene painted in gouache and gold paint and decorated with gilt-thread tambour-work outlining, stitched coloured-metal sequins (blue and yellow) and adhered coloured metal foil (red and blue) paillettes. The top edge and sides of the leaf are edged with applied gilt paper. Decoratively-carved sticks and guards of elephant ivory, overlaid with silver part-coloured by tinted lacquer; the ring-and dot motifs on the obverse sticks inlaid with red metal foil. Paper, previously silvered(?), is adhered to the reverse of alternate sticks. The sticks are united with a copper alloy rivet and mother-of-pearl spacers. Silk, backed with paper, length, guards, 27.5 cm, circa 1780. Chinoiserie.

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About this image

Folding fan. Production Place: England and France. On the silk obverse is a chinoiserie figurative scene painted in gouache and gold paint and decorated with gilt-thread tambour-work outlining, stitched coloured-metal sequins (blue and yellow) and adhered coloured metal foil (red and blue) paillettes. The top edge and sides of the leaf are edged with applied gilt paper. Decoratively-carved sticks and guards of elephant ivory, overlaid with silver part-coloured by tinted lacquer; the ring-and dot motifs on the obverse sticks inlaid with red metal foil. Paper, previously silvered(?), is adhered to the reverse of alternate sticks. The sticks are united with a copper alloy rivet and mother-of-pearl spacers. Silk, backed with paper, length, guards, 27.5 cm, circa 1780. Chinoiserie.

Image data

  • Accession Number: M.136-1985
  • Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
  • Aperture: f/22.0
  • Focal length: 80
  • Camera: Hasselblad H4D-31
  • Photographer name: Katie Young
  • Image height: 602 pixels
  • Image width: 1023 pixels
  • Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
  • Filesize: 129.70kB
  • Exposure time: 1/60
  • ISO Speed: 200
  • Fnumber: 22/1

Key words

18th Century birds Chinoiserie embroidery English fan fans figurative figures Fitz_AA foil folding fan French gouache inlay ivory overlaid pagoda paillettes paper scenes silk Silver tambour-work textile

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The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Chinoiserie silk and ivory fan " Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2954838118 Accessed: 2025-12-05 16:44:14

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-2954838118 |title=Chinoiserie silk and ivory fan |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 16:44:14|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Chinoiserie silk and ivory fan </figcaption>
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