A Fragile Floral Fan - a photo on Flickriver

            If you know me, or follow my photostream, you will know that I am a collector of many things.  Amongst other objects, I love to collect vintage accessories.  This includes antique fans, of which I now have a sizable collection.  My favourite fans are those from the Victorian and Edwardian era.  Fans from these eras are extremely ostentatious and beautiful, but at such advanced age are often very fragile.  Such is the case for this French one from the 1870s, which is made of black silk which has then been hand painted with a sprig of dainty pale pink roses.  If you look closely, you will see there are a few places along the folds where the delicate silk has perished opening a gap in the fabric and in one place breaking a hand painted rose in two.  The splays of the fan are made of ornately carved ebony.  European fans like this were predominantly used as a symbol of wealth, with many portraits of the era depicting this item in the hands of aristocrats. European fans typically have sticks made of wood or ivory, whilst the leaves of the fan were made from many different materials such as lace, silk or feathers.  Being so fragile, this fan, like my entire fan collection, is kept carefully in acid free paper, and stored out of the light, to help avoid any further deterioration of the material.  In spite of its damage, considering this fan is around one hundred and sixty years old, it is in remarkable condition.  I have photographed it against a backdrop of a piece of machine embroidered floral fabric that I recently acquired from an upmarket fabric shop, which sells fabrics by the quarter metre, which is just the perfect size for my photography purposes! 

The theme for "Smile on Saturday" for the 21st of September is "focus on F…", where a photograph of something beginning with the letter F is required.  English words that start with F are preferred and adjectives are not: only nouns.  Thus, whilst this fan is fragile, which is an adjective, and it is floral, which is also an adjective, I actually photographed it because it is a fan!  The fact that it is photographed on some floral fabric that fills the frame is an added bonus, and only done to show off the delicate fan itself.  It is lovely to be able to share with you a piece of my collection of fans you will not have seen before, even though I have had it for several decades now.  I hope you like my choice of image for this week, and that it makes you smile!

Taken on: September 8, 2024

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/2.8, 1/4 sec, 6.2mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.25 sec (1/4)
Focal Length:	6.2mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
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