✹ Fan project #4

Today I have read Unfolding beauty - the art of fan by Anns Gray Bennett, the book of fan collection from Ester Oldham and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

At first, I thought - in Europe, a fan was used only for a functional purpose which is to circulate the air. Because from where I came from, Thailand is a tropical country and fan is used only for that matter, at least from what I've experienced. But after I read this book, I've learned that a fan is more than that. It was used for socialising purposes, for example, it was used as a status symbol, commemorative object. It was used in parlour games, a memory aid or for political and commercial propaganda.

Tortoiseshell fan with Brussels needle lace, C.1900 source ; https://www.thefanmuseum.org.uk/

Mother-of-pearl and Carrickmacross guipure lace, 1980s 
source ; https://www.thefanmuseum.org.uk/

Folding Fan with serpentine sticks and gauze leaf painted with doves and flowers with lace , 1890 
source ; https://www.thefanmuseum.org.uk/

Also, from the collection of the fan in this book, the fans were mad out of many different kind of material - paper, wood, mother of pearl, feather or lace. Some of the materials were not used for the air circulation but only decorative purpose, for example, lace - with its sheer quality I think it's not as effective for air circulating as other material. From that I found, similar to many other objects that human involove with, at first it's used for function but later it's made only for showing off the owner's power of possessing it. I, indeed, agree with the statement of the begining of the chapter that goes 'In the long centuries preceling technology, when we were richer in craft and poorer in comfort, decorative hand held fans brought relief to an overdresses, overheated society...'

In conclusion I think fans in this book represent the idea of the object of power. They show the high skill of craftmanship and the involvement of various workmanship. To make one fan for elite class - different parts of the fan were imported from different continent. Also the design and the content in the fan were sometime costomized follow the identity or the events in life of the holder.