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Folding fan: M.141-1985

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 34 (Fan Gallery)

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Double chickenskin leaf, painted in bodycolour and gilt.
Sticks and guards of pierced and carved ivory (20+2). Rivet with two mother-of-pearl washers. Chinoiserie design.

Double chickenskin leaf, painted in bodycolour and gilt.
Sticks and guards of pierced and carved ivory (20+2). Rivet with two mother-of-pearl washers. Front: Painted overall with a large central cartouche and two smaller cartouches painted with European pastoral scenes, the ground filled by chinoiseries. Left: a seated shepherdess with a sheep, under a tree in a landscape. Centre: a shepherd and shepherdess seated beneath a tree in a landscape with a manor, a church and a river in the background and sheep and a stream in the foreground. Right: a girl holding a sheaf of corn and a sickle, stands beside a tree while another sits to pick a plant on the bank of a stream. The chinoiseries on the left comprise a landscape with a house in a walled garden beside a river; a woman and a boy; a rabbit; flowers and butterflies; and on the right, a group of ladies and a boy; three horses, and a landscape. Reverse: A basket of fruit, which is under attack from a grey squirrel, surrounded by floral sprays. Sticks: On each side of a central floral cartouche there are two stalk-like birds, below there is a smaller cartouche with a seated girl and two standing men on each side. Guards: Sprays of flowers, and at the top a standing man. When the fan is closed, a rococo scroll and a basket of flowers is visible on the edge and two floral sprigs on the head.

Notes

History note: Colonel Leonard C. Messel (1872-1953); his daughter Anne, Countess of Rosse (1902-1992)

Legal notes

Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a gift from The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1985-01-28) by Countess of Rosse, Anne

Dating

18th Century, third quarter#
Circa 1760 CE - Circa 1770 CE

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Leaf composed of chicken skin ( double) gilt gouache
Washers composed of mother-of-pearl
Rivet composed of steel
Sticks+guards composed of ivory
Guards Length 29.6 cm

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.141-1985
Primary reference Number: 117726
Old catalogue number: DR 2/3
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 25 February 2020 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Folding fan" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/117726 Accessed: 2024-03-29 00:00:40

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/117726 |title=Folding fan |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-29 00:00:40|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-117726

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