Fans

Adele Ashby was the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

From September 27, 1983, to January 8, 1984, the Vancouver Museum held an exhibition of fans, the first of its kind in Canada. While based on the exhibition, the booklet is more than a catalogue and, unlike many catalogues, which seriously suffer when detached from their exhibition, it can usefully stand on its own. It covers the history and technology of the fan over some five thousand years, and relates the fan to contemporary artistic and social trends. It is presumed that fans were originally utilitarian: someone plucked a leaf to keep flies off food or to cool a perspiring brow. But their subsequent use ranged from symbols of rank to fashion accessories. The anecdotes are fascinating: “In China, each season had a separate fan, and a deserted wife was often referred to as an autumn fan, since fans were laid aside at the end of the summer.” Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which deprived French Protestants of their civil and religious rights, drove many fan-makers to England, where the use of fans became widespread. The text covers, among others, advertising, autograph, balloon, bridal, brise, cockade, commemorative, mourning, and patriotic fans. There is a section on the language of the fan as used for flirting and courtship (for example, the fan handle held to the lips was an invitation to a kiss).

Includes black-and-white illustrations, a bibliography, and an index.