Fans
The longer fan of the 1700s gave way to a much more diminutive size at the turn of the century. Both folding and brisé fans (the latter being composed of individual sticks connected with a silk ribbon) were popular. Brisé fans were often made of pierced horn or ivory and imported from China.
Clockwise, from top: folding fan with ivory guard and sticks, hand-painted and spangled silk leaf, 1780s, English, 75.34, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Fentress in memory of Mary L. Roys; pierced ivory brisé fan, early 1800s, probably Chinese for the Western market, 346, gift of Anna E. Ladd; folding fan with gilded guard and sticks, spangled silk satin leaf, 1800s, 7086, gift of Julia Gray Gatlin Moore; folding fan with bone guard and sticks, silver embossed leaf, 1800-1820, 46.35.2, gift of Mary Augusta Rand; brisé fan, pierced horn with painted flowers, silk ribbon, 1800-1825, English or French, 285. 2, gift of Margaret Hetzel Pendleton.
