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Pitt Rivers Museum

1944.10.81

Woman’s circular fan with carved ivory handle.

On display


1944.10.81

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Woman’s circular fan with carved ivory handle.
Long description
Woman’s circular fan with carved ivory handle. Ground of macaw feathers and swansdown; centrepiece of 2 hummingbirds, featherwork roses and wired foliage decorated with beetle wings. three featherwork carnations on reverse. [LM 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 14/9/2005]
Cultural groups
English
Person
Maker Unknown Maker
Field collector Unknown Collector
PRM source Miss Pope
Date / Period
Date made: 1850-1900
Date collected
By 1944
Acquisition information
Donated: 1944
Materials and processes
Material Animal Ivory Tooth, Material Bird Feather, Material Swansdown Feather Bird, Material Beetle Insect, Material Metal Wire, Material Plant, Material Silk Yarn Animal, Process Carved
Dimensions
Diameter: max 240 mm, Length: max 350 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1944.10.81
Associated publications
This object was featured in the Museum’s ‘web gallery’ (‘Selected Objects from the Lower Gallery’) produced during the DCF-funded ‘What’s Upstairs?’ project, 2004–2006, with the following caption: ‘Feather fans were extremely popular in Victorian Britain. The feathers of exotic birds were imported from all over the world. They were then cured, dyed, curled, and fashioned into spectacular objects. This English fan is thought to be late Victorian. It is made from swan down and South American macaw feathers, and has been set with stuffed humming birds, probably also imported from South America. The handle is made from carved Chinese ivory.

Search terms: Fan, Trade