I’ve been putting together my Regency wardrobe for the Shades of Milk and Honey launch party and was scanning ebay for inexpensive fans that could pass for period appropriate. There were a surprising number of fans that really were from the early 1800s, if only I wanted to spend hundreds of dollars. I didn’t.
And then I ran across this horribly battered one. The seller said that it was from his family’s estate in France and was from the 18th or 19th century. I kept looking at it and then moving away because, really, I wasn’t going to have time to repair it.
But the guard was so pretty and the price was within my range. I managed to talk myself out of it multiple times until I realized that if I let this one go, I would continue thinking about it for years. It’s not that I’ll be able to do a perfect restoration, but it is likely the only thing from this period that I’ll be able to afford.
Plus the guard is similar to our silver pattern, so that made it even more appealing. So I bought the thing.
The first thing I did was untangle the pieces which were snarled on the old threads. Thank heavens for my time as a marionettist, I’ll tell you what. This allowed me to lay things out to see what I had.
When I’d seen the photos, I thought that I was looking at lace or some sort of cut silk but the gold pieces are stamped metal. I’m guessing this puts it in the latter part of the 1800s, but don’t really know.
To me, these look like they have Art Nouveau lines, but other parts of the fan look very much like they are Empire. It’s possible that the foil was a later addition to update an older fan. The guards and sticks appear to be either ivory or bone and the slips are very thin wood painted to match. At one point there was an ivory net backing all of this and silver sequins stitched into the interstices of the foil. The stars and circles are metal and I think were more silver than they are now. In the photo they look absolutely black, but don’t in real life.
After I inventoried all the pieces, I laid them out the way I think the fan originally looked. Fortunately, a lot of the foil pieces still had the the guard strings connecting them so it was easy to see how they were supposed to sit in relation to the ribbing. To my surprise, I think I have enough of it here to attempt to reconstruct it. I’ll have to buy new net and repair the broken guard but I think that all the repairs are actually within my skill set. I might take the guard down to Malloy’s, a store that specializes in antique jewelry and see if they will do that bit so that I don’t damage it with the wrong glue. Especially since I’m not sure if it’s ivory or bone. Anyway, this gives you an idea of what I think it will look like.
You know, I had a sneaking suspicion you weren’t going to be able to resist that fan when you mentioned it at Penguicon. It’s beautiful. Good luck!
Yeah. I am weak. WEAK!
That is… so cool! I envy your skillset, for even being able to consider doing this.
And, if you do this, I’m pretty sure this will make you an Accomplished Young Lady, in the Regency sense of the word. Mr. Bingley would be astonished.
(He’d be astonished anyway, but you know what I mean.)
I suspect Mr. Bingley would be more astonished by my trousers than my ability to repair a fan.
I’m assuming that when you end up stuck in Pride and Prejudice, you’ll have your new gown made (and be wearing it).
(Watch out for interdimensional portals at NASFIC)
I’ll watch out for those, but you know the way they work it’ll never happen when I’m actually wearing the right clothes.
Wow! Let me know what you find out about guard glues. I have two of these puppies that need guard repairs. If all else failed, I would go with an epoxy gel with a very, very thin transparent stiff backing if you have room for it, but I’m not too comfortable with that solution–there must be something better.
I have a fan that has a guard repair from the period. It was done in sterling silver, wrapped around the guard so as to brace it, sort of like a cast. Would that we all could do likewise
Based on the star-thingies and the stamped gilded stuff, I would say 1880s-1890s, but could be earlier. It looks like it used to have a pattern of spangles.
It will go beautifully with a Regency outfit.
When is the book out?
The original fan has a thin pasteboard back, now torn, that I’m going to replace with some archival pasteboard as a way to strengthen the break.
So far the solutions I’m reading about are to either use a CA glue or epoxy mixed with ivory dust. Since these breaks are really clean I’ll probably lean toward the CA.
The book comes out on August 3rd.
You are remarkable. I’d look at that tangle of wire and bone and just hide under the bed. It’s going to be beautiful when you’re done with it. Spangles and net and gold guards, oh, my!
My original plan had been to just to appreciate having the ribs and maybe try to put a new leaf on it. I just got sucked in when I realized it wasn’t as bad as it had looked at first.
Oh wow. That looks like it’s going to be gorgeous. Be happy you went for it!
I am! Although there are other things that I should be doing instead of playing at repairs.