Featured What can you tell me about this Hand Fan?

Hi everyone, I picked up this framed hand fan at an estate sale and would love to learn more about it. Photos below. If there any additional details you would like to see, let me know.

 

Beautiful!
Please give measurements: width tip to tip, and height.
I know nothing about hand fans but measurements are likely to be helpful. I believe that sizes changed over the years and can sometimes help determine when a fan may have been made.

 

All I know is, it's old. Usually, a lady painted onto something was from an earlier era than what she's painted onto, so I'd be thinking Victorian somewhere. Just don't ask me where. A fan guru will be along shortly; I about know which end to hold to make it work.

 

It is about 26" across tip to tip, and 14" tall

 

@Any Jewelry

 

Dress has an exaggerated bustle. Mid- to late-1880s.

Debora

 

on AR tonight:
French Silk and Bone Fan, ca. 1800 | Antiques Roadshow | PBS

 

It’s lovely!!! And so delicate, plus nicely framed!

 

I had the same thought.

 

Is that the fan or the frame? If it is the fan, it is later than the costume.

It is a sweet fan. It is a late 19th century fan, 1890(s). A bone deck and handpainted gauze leaf with lace details and hand knotted Algerian knot tassel.
Costumes on fans aren't always something to go by, fans also followed historic revival fashions, but in this case it could be an indication, as Debora said. If it is a huge fan, it is 1890s, so slightly later than the costume. Maybe the painter was a bit old-fashioned.
Other indications of a relatively late fan are the metal loop at the bottom, the thin textile and the lace 'floating' on the gauze.
The leaf has to create an impression of delicate butterfly wings, not of the heavy and functional fan of a few decades earlier. It would have been carried to dances and similar functions by a young lady of the middle class.
My grandmother had a similar fan, which I have now. It is smaller though, and dates to ca 1910.

The frame was intended for a grander fan. Both in size and in value. Fan frames are not easy to come by, and the frame is currently more valuable than the fan.

 

True. The angle when unfolded is also an indication, so it is important to have a frontal view of the completely opened fan.

 

I'd love to see a "full frontal" shot of the fan in the frame, a photo taken straight on from the front and not cropping anything out.

 

And a photograph of the back.

Debora

 

Thanks for all the great intel everyone! Here are photos of the front and back:


The frame itself measures 31" x 18"

 

Thanks, nice of you to try to accommodate us with the extra photos!
Unfortunately, they are too small to be of much help.