Lorgnette Fan with Love's Arrows motif

Unknown

ca. 1790 · Ivory, mica · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Between the ivory sticks of this fan, the opaque white gauze leaf is decorated with arrow-shaped silver spangles- a device of the period popularly called "Love's Arrows". The arrow shaft motif is picked up by the shape of the sticks and guards, which are decorated with glinting mica. The circular peepholes allow for a magnifying glass to be set in the guard- making this a lorgnette, or "quizzing", fan. A similar fan of American manufacture is also at The Met (Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Edna E. de Frise, 1960).

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1790

Medium

Ivory, mica

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Mrs. Maria P. James, 1911