ENGLISH FANS .AND ENGLISH HISTORY.
THE fan, which has been described by an amiable enthusiast as "the sceptre that rules the world," appears in Lady Charlotte Schreiber's collection* as chorus to the play of a period ; explaining, annotating, and preserving the political, social, and artistic features of the hey-day of fan-fashion, and in particular catching its follies as they flew. This collection, mounted or in leaves only, consists of popular fans of the last and the early years of the present century, not belonging to the class of "beautiful and costly specimens which have been instanced and described and their vicissitudes recorded." It presents, indeed, in some instances, a remarkable contrast to the French and Spanish fan-painting of the period, for many of the specimens remind one by their lack of grace and clumsiness of conceit, of the fable of "The Lap-Dog and the Donkey "—ponderousness and prosiness are unpardonable in the fan—but, on the whole, it is deeply interesting, and even touching in this very incongruity. A century hence, the dainty devices of to-day, the graceful feather-fans,
• Fans and Fan-Leers,: English. Collected and Described by Lady Charlotte Schreiber. With 161 Mustratlons. London : John Murray.
the " posy " fans which not only look but smell like the flowers they simulate, the bird-fans, the fans that " go " with the gowns, the corsets, the shoes, and the gloves of the luxury-loving women who "do not only wear clothes, but are dressed" (as Madame de Metternich said of the Austrian in contradistinction to the Prussian ladies), will sound no chord of association beyond that one which commonly stirs at the sight of a symbol of gaiety and pleasure belonging to the past. Our fans are not "of actuality," as were those of the last two centuries, when they were universally used, and "the nice conduct of a clouded cane" was not more indicative than the correct adjustment of those graceful toys. Few are the women who can now hold a fan between the thumb and the two first fingers without turning the wrist, furl it with decision, and let it depend from the right hand, just touching the left arm, after the fashion that caused Gainsborough to exclaim, when he was forced to admit Queen Charlotte's ugliness,—" But, good heavens, how she holds a fan !" It may be that fan-speech is not a dead language (although its grammar and vocabulary are no longer printed upon its leaves for the prompting of interlocutors, as in one of Lady Charlotte Schreiber's choice specimens), but it has lost its rhythm. One may see lovely ladies talking out of time to the flutter or the wave of a fan, an enormity which corresponds with the introduction of the polka and the vile dear temps, in the decline of dancing from the stately minuet, in which the fan plays as important a part as the beton of the conductor in an orchestra. The autograph-fan, with which the intrepid collector pursues the big and little lions of the various "worlds," through the throng of a private view, or the mazes of a garden party, pouncing upon them (the little ones like it) with the very latest patent pen, and by either suppli- cation or sauciness, whichever is most becoming to the style of the petitioner, triumphantly securing the coveted signatures, is the only approach to a revival of the chronicle-fan of which Lady Charlotte Schreiber gives 161 illustrations.
This huge volume is imposing, but its arrangement is in- convenient ; the constant necessity for turning back from the plates to the descriptive catalogue preceding them is trouble- some ; interleaving would have made the study more attractive. In several instances, however, the designs speak for themselves as plainly as a Pinnock's Catechism. With one exception, they are all printed, and many of them have the name of the artist or publisher, or both. The first fan-leaf—the original is on paper, coloured and heightened with gold—is perhaps the most curious in the collection. It represents "The States of Europe playing at Piquet," and is just two hundred years old. The drawing is very much superior to the specimens of a century later, and the group of Monarchs, all intent upon their own interests, and the injury of their neighbours, is strongly characteristic. Among the lookers-on is a young man in a mantle, who addresses Britannia, approving of her holding aloof from the game. Says he: " 'Tis not the interest of the nation to play without advantage. In time, Commerce might play the cards." This cautions personage is probably William of Orange: in that ease Wisdom was clearly justified of one of her children. A very curious fan, not nearly so well drawn, is supposed to represent the triumph of William M., with whom, and afterwards with Frederick II. of Prussia, the popular fan had the sympathy ensured by success, while it is savagely but clumsily sarcastic on historical failures, such as the French at Rosbach, Maria Theresa after the defection of Frederick, and Napoleon in Russia. We have the fan loyal, chiefly concerned with George III., but also eulogistically dolorous about his father's death (that Prince whose decease grieved nobody, and gave his parents unaffected pleasure), likewise sentimental and effusive over such truly auspicious unions as those of sheep-faced Frederick's sister with the Prince of Orange, and Caroline of Brunswick with George Prince of Wales. The irony of fate invests these poor conceits of fulsomeness and flattery with an almost melancholy interest. Loyalty combined with Art finds expression in a dexterously grouped but ill-drawn design, representing a visit to the Royal Academy by George M., Queen Charlotte, and the incredibly large Royal family, all with very big heads, and all in attitudes expressive of admiration. The Queen's arm hangs within the King's in an odd way, and justice without mercy is done to her features,—the same rigid realism is to be observed in one of the most curious designs in the collection, an allegorical fan (Nos. 114415), "England and France, 1794," described as follows :—"In the centre of the obverse is a medallion engraved with two subjects : one, em- blematical of the Royal Tree of England, laden with fruit, the Holy Bible, British Lion, the Anchor, Rose, &c., grouped around it ; the other, of that of France, blasted, a monster (the hydra of democratic anarchy) lying at its base, with the Ten Commandments, the Crown, Frs., prostrate beneath it, and the guillotine in the background. The outlines of the engravings present the profiles of George M. and Queen Charlotte, and of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette." The vignette on the side of England is commonplace—the Crown and Magna, Charts—but that on the side of France includes among its terrific emblems, a woman's head (erroneously described as a Fury's) severed by the guillotine, and dripping with blood, which is a most striking representation of that dreadful mode of death. The exhausted agony of the face is very remarkable. Not a pleasant design to carry about on a fan, one would have thought, however patriotically soothing in its suggestion of the milder methods of that other tree just then flourishing like the green bay of the Psalmist,—at Tyburn. Indeed, many of the subjects are curiously inappro- priate to the purposes and associations of the fan. Among these are heavy architectural designs, funereal monuments, botanical and geographical charts (other than those of the Pays du Tendre), an objectionable reproduction in miniature of one of Hogarth's serial studies from the life—this is a remarkable illustration of the coarse manners of the period— and borders to central designs, pretty in themselves, formed of ugly, vulgar, vicious, and repulsive faces. Many of the sentimental fans are charming. The various orders of lovers, in the various stages of love ; the sweet little idylls of domesticity ; the birds ; the walks abroad of short-waisted maid and swain ; the innocent conundrums, reminding us of the pastimes of Emma Woodhouse and Harriet Smith; the harmless pleasantries of the fan-talk—(" faniology " makes a special show in this collection)—supposed to be interchanged during the tris-d-vis of the country-dance, or the tedious severances of the theatre and concert-room ; the faceti& of the " Gypaey " or fortune-telling fan,—all these are as in- teresting as the fashion-plates in the old magazines, or a dip into "Elegant Extracts," or the Albums of the period. If the wit of the fan-fanny leaves us in the condition of mind of Mr. Pickwick when he wondered at the ease with which the friends of Mr. Peter Magnus were amused, it makes us a little envious too. Only fancy captivation by charade and conundrum, and the rout of one's rivals by riddle and rebus ! What a gift for one's fair, instead of those trouble- some wood-pigeons of immortal fame, which could only have been eaten, after all, like Barham's, would have been a brand-new conundrum-fan, to make of her the sought-for one of the Pump-Room and the Promenade ! No doubt the "literary gents" of the period, they of the nice knack in dedicatory effusions, and apt at "copies of verses," turned many an honest penny by the harmless manufacture of such ready wit. Bartholomew Fair, with its humours, B,anelagh, Vauxhall, and "The Bath" are favourite fan-subjects, very ill-drawn, and with figures mostly preposterous ; but all these designs, as well as Gretna Green, St. James's Park, the old Whitehall, the old King's Theatre, the naval victories specimens, the commemoration of Wellington's earlier ex- ploits, and the series 'illustrative of the Peninsular War— curiously testifying to the popularity of King Ferdinand with the English at that time—are all possessed of historical and social interest. The fans which represent the conduct of the French in Spain are singularly unpleasant as fans, but very graphic.
Landscapes, garden scenes, ruins, and the figures accom- panying these, are tame and prosy, and chiefly curious to contrast with the poetic grace of the French fan-painters' treatment of a similar class of subjects at the same period.
Political portraits and caricatures abound, the Union being
celebrated with exuberant sanguineness in a later series ; on one fan we find the Sister-Kingdoms represented by three fat and forward damsels, looking much like the "linked sweet- ness" given to charging down Greenwich Hill. The Union Charade Fan is very ingenious; we can readily picture the tes- table emulation, the "sallies," the guessings, the promptings, and the giggles which followed its first appearance. Then there is the Wheel of Fortune Fan, a delightful excitement, and a fund of useful hints for sly flirtation,—probably super- fluous. To return to the more serious designs—the trial of Warren Hastings forms the subject of the centre of a fan panel, with oval medallions at the sides bearing references, after a methodical fashion, to the numbers on the engrav- ing, and surmounted by vignettes of winged heads. A commemoration of Rodney's victories is in vile taste ; the trite description is worth recording :—" In the centre of the leaf is a full-length figure of Admiral Rodney, standing on the sea-shore and trampling on a flag decorated with the fleur-de-lys of France. A Cupid, above whom floats a scroll bearing Rodney's name, is descending from the sky to crown him with a wreath of laurel. On the left, Neptune holding his trident, rises from the sea in a conch shell drawn by dolphins, and offers him a naval crown, while on the right, Britannia, seated amid her emblems, the Union Jack, flags, anchors, cannons, &c., stretches out her hand to him with a coronet." Sir Clondesley Shovel in Westminster Abbey, going up to heaven on a feather-bed, is hardly worse than this awful example of Rodney-Macheath with one charmer over. Admiral 'Vernon, who was a popular hero rather because of his opposi- tion to Walpole than on account of his prowess, is a favourite fan-figure ; and Walpole is the subject of the best of the political caricatures. The burning question of the Excise is the topic.
We have not space even for mention of many other side- lights on the life and manners of the time afforded by this remarkable and, we believe, unique collection of fans, but must add a word respecting the dance, casino, concert, and theatre fans. These are all ingenious, interesting, and valuable ; they are, so to speak, Memoires pour servir, and they furnish an example to be followed in the interests of a charming art industry, as zealously as the political party fan is to be avoided. The Opera Fan, representing the ground- plan of the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, in 1788, with the names of all the occupiers of seats, is one of the most curious specimens in the collection ; several of the dance-fans are chronicles of the musical celebrities of the time. The Royal Concert Fan is 'a page of Court history. Could not these customs be revived, and the social features and events of to-day be stored up in popular fans, as the phonograph will store its voices? Why should we not have Lyceum fans, -Savoy fans; and why should not the State visit of the Shah to -Covent Garden be proposed as a prize subject to the fan- painters? Are there any fans commemorative of her Majesty's Jubilee? If not, there ought to be, with better-contrived allegory than English art could boast when the Jubilee of the Queen's grandfather was commemorated on No. 118 of this collection. Oh! the complicated luggage amid which Britannia -sits smiling on a porterless shore with a crewless ship in the offing!
The grotesque fans are very clever and amusing, especially -those representing the Suits of Cards, and that immortal story of the Queen of Hearts, the King, the Knave, and the tarts, which received its latest homage from the lamented Randolph CaMecott. The legend of the larceny is delightfully told. One always wants to know whether the tarts were cream- tarts and had pepper in them, and whether the original narrator of the story stole them, in the first instance, from the "Arabian Nights."
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