Ironing the leaf and dating the 19th Century hand fan

The latest effort was to iron the leaf of the fan.  This was a fiddly as you would expect it to be.  Basically, I folded each stick in, one at a time, and ironed the crease into place, then folded the next. It was not terribly exciting, but did make a difference in how easy it is to fold the fan.

It’s hard tell in the photos, but it is more compact after being ironed.

It’s easier to see from the front, but really the biggest difference is in how easy it is to fold.

Also, I didn’t notice this until adding these photos, but the front and back guards are different. The back guard lacks the row of steel dots across the top.

The description says:

Empire fan. Made of net and sewn with sequins and spangles; ivory sticks and mother-of-pearl guards, both with cut steels. The central vignette is painted on silk and applied to the net. Possibly Spanish. c. 1820. From M. Duvelleroy’s personal collection.

Mine has everything except the silk. The guards are bone instead  of mother of pearl, but otherwise, stylistically very similar.

Which means that I set the degree of opening on the fan too wide, but I’m not going to attempt to correct it at this point.