Here is a quick overview of fans, fan anatomy and styles. This is not exhaustive and is just meant to be a quick reference.
Fan Types
Fixed Fans
As I said in my last fan post, the fixed fan was likely the earliest form of man made hand fan.
The earliest of these is a fixed fan made from one piece of paper or wood. If the paper or wood mimics the shape of a leaf and stem, this is known as a self-handle fan. There are also wedge or pie shaped Fixed Fans, which are a single piece of wood or paper cut out in a triangular or lotus shape.
The next type is a leaf of paper, leather, parchment, chicken skin, or wood, (among other things) attached to a stick at the top. This is the one you see in ancient murals a lot. Fixed fans can also take the form of a fixed flag fan, where the leaf is attached to the stick on one side so it resembles a flag.
Fixed Fans may also have a thumb grip, or may feature a bent bamboo or wicker handle.
Tri-Fold Fans
Tri-Fold Fans a usually paper and are pulled apart. These were extremely popular for advertising fans as they could be cheaply manufactured and were compact for shipping easily.
Folding Fans
Folding fans consist of Guards, which are often ornamented. Guards are the outermost sticks which protect the inner leaves. Second are the Sticks, which are, just that… sticks. They give the fan its structure. Guards and sticks are usually made of bone, ivory, wood, mother of pearl and in the 20th century French ivory and plastic, amongst other things. Attached to the sticks are the ribs. Ribs are smaller sticks which give the cloth, feathers, paper or lace body, allowing them to keep their shape. The pretty silk, mesh, feathers, paper or lace make up the leaves of the fan. These are the showstoppers.
Some fans have long sticks, negating the need for ribs and leaves. These are called Brise Fans and are often held together with ribbon. You may recognize bamboo fans that look like this. Fans made of feathers sometimes do not need ribs, depending on construction.
Beyond the usual folding fan shape that we all think of, folding fans come in a variety of shapes, such as the Palmette, balloon or shell shape folding fan, the Fontange shape fan is an exaggerated half oval or the Jenny Lind shape fan with it’s individual petal shaped leafs.
Cockade Fans
These are closed fans that open to reveal a circular fan that resembles a cockade.
Fan Styles
Fan Styles are different from fan types. This comes down to fashions in materials. The same way dress fashions are very different within eras but may use the same materials, so it is with fans. There are lace fans, feather fans, and painted fans of silk or paper fans, but it is what type of lace, which feathers and in what manner are they applied, etc. that may denote an era. Fan styles encompass all the fashions and fads in fans.
Fans are such a stunning accessory, despite the fact that even with air conditioning, I really enjoy using them. I won’t say they’re entirely useless. I had a fan with me on a flight that was held on the tarmac for three hours with no air-conditioning. A lot of people wished they had my fan on that flight.
How about you? Any relatively unseen items you still use today?
