A. Fan making, as illustrated in Diderot’s Encyclopaedia. In 1765, Diderot published a series of engravings to accompany his famous Encyclopaedia. The four plates on fan making document the activities of a fan workshop operated by an all-female workforce. The production of a single folding fan was a collaborative undertaking orchestrated by the fan maker but involving any number of craftspeople depending on the quality and complexity of the fan.Look first at plate one, top left. The workers are shown preparing the paper sheets used to make fan leaves. Beside the window, a seated female glues the sheets together while others stretch them onto fan shaped frames and hang them aloft to dry. The small, sparsely furnished room indicates the lowly status of those working on preparatory aspects of fan production. Now look at plate 2, top right. Within a brightly lit, comfortably furnished room, a woman sits at a bureau with a fan leaf placed on top. On an easel in front rests the picture she is copying. The plates below illustrate the process of fan mounting, a task which demanded great accuracy. Plate 3, bottom left shows two women, one clamping a leaf onto a board etched with radiating lines. She runs a tool called a jetton over the paper sheet, impressing the paper into the grooves of the board and so forming the characteristic pleats. Plate 4, bottom right shows the final stage in the process: the removal of the leaves from the board. Figure 11 records how the small rod is pushed up between the pleats to make sure the fan sticks are free to slide up and in between the two leaves, rather like a hand into a glove.
To hear a description of the workshop activities illustrated on the back panel, press A.To learn more about the component parts of folding fans press B.To learn more about fan pleating press C