Featured Celluloid Hand Fan - Comments Please

I came across this thin celluloid fan that is very simple in design. The blades are wafer thin and have some striations in them, otherwise, it is quite plain. It doesn't expand very much, but I since don't know anything about fans, I don't know if it is supposed to be that way. It just doesn't seem to me very useful to create a breeze.
It is in pretty good shape except for the ribbon that has become unglued at the end. When I have been doing research, all the celluloid fans are ornately carved or colorful. I can't find anything like this. It is 9 1/2 inches in total length. The blades are 8 3/4 inches and the widest blade is 1 1/4 inch. If it is an antique, I will have it framed to protect it. I would appreciate some help. @Any Jewelry if you want to chime in that would be great. It was hard to photograph, so please excuse these.

 

Gorgeous, Kiko.
The unusual shape is called fontange, after the ca 1700 fontange hairstyle with a similar high central part. Fontange fans are later though, mostly very late 19th-early 20th century.
Yours is early 20th century, so yes antique, and to be handled with care. I love the very Art Nouveau loop. It would have had a silk ribbon (with a bow?) to wear it on the wrist.

Not a problem, easily solved.

These thin fans were less likely to survive than the more sturdy fancy fans.
My grandmother had a few of these thin celluloid fans (not fontange), she called them dancing lesson fans. A young lady had to have the proper attire when attending dance lessons, of course.
When she went to an informal dance, she would also have a celluloid fan with her, and it served as a dancing card as well as a fan. Young men would write their name in pencil on the leaves.
For formal occasions she had ivory and lace fans, painted with delicate flowers.
I still have her surviving fans, they were the start of my fan collection.

 

Queen Mary with fontange hairstyle:

 

It is in fantastic condition!
From your pics, I rather see ivory than celluloid
The striations are not the regular parallel kind encountered on French Ivory (man made material).
Plus the ring\fixation piece is carved (pic 9).
Celluloid is very light weighed, when ivory is much more dense and feels heavy in hand...

 

This is soooooooooooo exciting! Fontange - new word too. Thank you for the thorough and detailed explanation. I was hoping it was just not a toss away reproduction. I am jazzed it is an antique worth preserving. I can see now why it is so simple and small. Something for a younger person. The idea of young men writing on the fan blades and not a dance card is exquisite. I'm far more familiar with the fancy ivory and lace fans. Thank you very much.

 

Love this. You could be seen better across the room, I suppose, with this towering hairdo.

 

Ooops. In California, even antique ivory is forbidden for sale. I just thought faux ivory - celluloid in this case. It feels rather heavy at 5.4 grams, but I don't have another one to compare weight. I didn't notice the carved ring, but you are right, that doesn't seem molded. More reason to conserve then.
It seemed to be unused, so that's perhaps why it survived. Perhaps, a young girl like me with two left feet.

 

I didn't even look at the material, but I agree, it looks like ivory, not faux.
Celluloid was also carved btw, and still is, in Spain for instance. I posted some carved celluloid ornamental combs a few years back.

 

I'm the one who labelled it celluloid. I guessed. I figured all plastics were molded. Good to know that celluloid is carved.

 

Using the excellent comments from AJ and Kyra, I tracked down this different shaped but with the same material and style fan at the fan museum



Fan Record | The Fan Museum, Greenwich

 

Very nice and elegant.

 

Thank you. A néw rabbit hole of discovery though.