School Gallery 2

We will expose for you here, depending on our imagination or (why not?) yours, some various or curious elements, without apparent organization, in order to intrigue, amuse and inform. As for the other headings, do not hesitate to suggest, react and... to come back!

Sorry this page is not translated to good english : if you want to help, please do !! And anyway have a look!

  Fan sex (if you are looking fo bawdy materials, you are wrong !)

I   If the controversy (evoked below) on the kind of the word " éventail " (in french) hardly lasted, there are undoubtedly uncertainties on the sex of its users. Antiquity and the East granted this attribute to the two sexes, and it was even sign of capacity or dignity for certain men: flabellum of the popes, " gunsen " (war fan) of Japanese. See an example of chinese trade-card fans used in 1986. Certains authors attests the use of the fan by men in modern Europe, in particular Mrs. Esther Oldham, celebrated american "fanatic", author of many articles, whose collection is now in the Museum of Beautiful Arts of Boston. Others however, following the Pamphlet "L'Isle des Hermaphrodites" (against Henri III, king of France) see in the quoted examples only a fashion of queer men (why not ? a famous " gay " coffee, close to the Halles, in Paris, gave some times ago fan shaped screens to its customers.). The Dictionary of the French Academy, 1st Edition, 1694 indicates besides to this word: Fan s. m. Instrument which is used to ventilate. Fan of skin of scents , painted fan, feather fan, fan bastons (sticks) . There are hardly but the women who carry fans. The same dictionary, in its Fifth edition, 1798, repeats: " There are hardly but the women who carry fans" The repeated drafting of these definitions (whereas the authors perhaps referred to the male use of the fan in the East) lets us think that the men, in occident, used the fan only by exception or eccentricity. However, on a beautiful fan of the end of XVIIème century, we find this gentleman, who seems to be extremely well accompanied by the ladies, while agitating his fan. What to conclude from it? nothing, for the moment, if not that to be fan collector, the sex cannot be a criterion, even if one finds in the family more ladies than Messrs (especially in the States) ! We will also show some day, if you are kind with your teacher, some green fan romantic men use for a while in Paris, or some victorian colonial items ...

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Éventail : masculin, sans contestation. Les picards disent éventaille, au féminin, au lieu d'éventail, ce qui à fait croire à quelques uns qu'ils disent éventail au même genre. Considérations de Monsieur Ménage sur la langue française (Paris, 1677) ? MADRIGAL J'ai pris vostre éventail, Madame, I took your fan, Madam, Mais n'en soyez pas en courroux, But do'nt be angry Songez à mon ardeur, considerez ma flâme, Think to my heat, consider my flame Vous verrez que j'en ay plus de besoin que vous. You will see that I have for it more need than you have. MONTREUIL, Mathieu de (1620-1691) : Stances, madrigaux, lettre de Monsieur de Montreuil. - Paris : à la Sirène, [s.d.]

Poetical fan

L’Eventail C’est moi qui soumets le zéphyre A mes battements gracieux ; O femmes, tantôt je l’attire Plus vif et plus frais sur vos yeux,   Tantôt je le prends au passage Et j’en fais le tendre captif Qui vous caresse le visage D’un souffle lent, tiède et plaintif.   C’est moi qui porte à votre oreille, Dans un frisson de vos cheveux, Le soupir qui la rend vermeille, Le soupir brûlant des aveux ;   C’est moi qui vous le provoque, Et vous aide à dissimuler Ou votre rire qui s’en moque Ou vos larmes qu’il fait couler.   Sully-Prud'homme	I	Responsible for a strong symbolic system related on joys and sorrows of love, the fan attracted the poets, as well in the East as in Occident. These poems, sometimes written on the fan itself, contributed to make fans an essential instrument of the female strategies of seduction, or to make it such in men mind... Quite forgotten today (in spite of a real talent), Sully-Prud'homme (first Nobel Prize of Literature in 1901) evoked more than one once the object which interests us. The opposite poem was reproduced on 17 December 1893 in a popular weekly magazine, "L'Illustré Soleil du Dimanche" which is a testimony of the pari-passu reputation of the poet and the fan during the 18 nineties.
Sorry : here I give up translating !	Up

The "monographs"

 In our "monographs", we study very different fans, and add several times a year a new and original study.

   "Gadget" fans

Many kinds of fantasy fans, which we can call " gadgets" do exist. May be, during the next months or years... we shall be able to show you some of them : optical fan, making spyglass ("lorgnette"), magnifying glass, long sight or binocular ; (a great number may be seen at this address) mirror fan, which makes it possible to look behind oneself, or to remake a beauty quickly ; dagger fan, not to put in all the hands ; fan dissimulated in : canes, bottles, bouquets, cigars... fan with secrecies : automat fan, with parts of the guard which can be moved, or fan "with double view", presenting on each face two scenes (one often seditious or licencious) ; telescopic fan, or that which, closed, still yields into two parts; fan hidding sewing box, or perfume bottle, etc.... and a lot of others, of which some are illustrated in the works quoted in bibliography (in particular of Mr. Volet and G Walberg).... among which various sunshades ranges or parasols, like that represented opposite, which has the advantage of being also a mirror fan.  A good example of these objects is illustrated in a video posted on line by Margaretha Mazzura, a collector and scholar. It shows, in action, an "articulated fan": https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=bYAs6LlYVF4	I	Up

L'éventail "acoustique"

L'Éventail acoustique. Je veux indiquer aux femmes atteintes de certaines formes nerveuses de surdité un moyen extrêmement simple et facile d'atténuer cette désagréable infirmité qui raye presque de la société humaine ceux qui en sont affligés, en les empêchant d'entendre les conversations et, en conséquence, d'y prendre part. Elles auront toujours sous la main un éventail japonais, fait de bâtons de bambou, fendus en deux, et recouvert de papier. Lorsqu'elles voudront écouter, elles saisiront l'éventail, le déplieront, en appuieront le bord supérieur contre leur mâchoire (côté où l'on parle ou côté de la mauvaise oreille), le ployant assez pour donner quelque tension aux baguettes de bambou. Elles seront toutes surprises d'entendre comme si elles se servaient d'audiphone et de dentaphone. En outre, ce sera d'un appareil moins solennel et plus gracieux.   Nous tirons ce texte amusant d'un ouvrage de la Baronne Staffe (célèbre par ses livres de savoir-vivre), le Cabinet de Toilette, p 167, publié à Paris en 1899 par G. Havard fils Editeur	I	The acoustic Fan I want to indicate to the women suffering from certain nervous forms of deafness an extremely simple and easy mean to attenuate this unpleasant infirmity, which almost scratch of the human society those which are afflicted with it, by preventing them hearing the conversations and, consequently, from sharing therm. They will always have near their hand a Japanese fan, with bamboo sticks, split into two, and covered with paper. When they want to listen, they will seize the fan, will unfold it, will support the upper edge against their jaw (side where one speaks or side about the bad ear), bending it enough to give some tension to the rods of bamboo. They all will be surprised to hear as if they made use of audiphone and dentaphone. Moreover, it will be of a less solemn apparatus and more gracious We draw this amusing text from a book of Baronne Staffe (famous for its good manners books), "the Cabinet de Toilette", p 167, published in Paris in 1899 per G Havard (son) Editeur
De remarquables exemples de ces éventails acoustiques sont donnés dans http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/19thcent/spv.htm		Several examples of these acoustic fans are given on http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/19thcent/spv.htm accueil back home

On this blog (http://eighteenthcenturylit.pbworks.com/w/page/76053578/Fans) you will find a lot of interesting quotes from poems, newspapers etc. There are some mistakes, though. For instance, the author thinks that a Cleone Knox did exist and spoke about the so-called "Language of the Fan". Alas this is a well known hoax! (see https://talkingbookshop.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/the-diary-of-a-young-lady-of-fashion-in-the-year-1764-1765-by-cleone-knox-magdalen-king-hall/)