Folding fan Deconstructed. The leaf – sometimes called the mount – can be single or double. When single, the sticks are fixed to the least ornate side and the fan is said to be mounted a l’Anglaise. The leaf can be made of an infinite number of materials including paper, textiles, and the skins of lamb, calf and kid made smooth and supple by liming, scraping and stretching. One type of skin was particularly admired for its fineness, translucency and durability: chicken skin as it is popularly known is in fact nothing of the sort but derives from the skin of very young, even stillborn, calves. In addition to fans, chicken skin was used to make gloves so fine they were sold packed inside little walnut shells. The sticks which support the pleated leaf are held together at the pivot end by a rivet – a small rod around which the fan can rotate. The two outer sticks – the guards – are stronger than the inner sticks and are usually more heavily decorated. Some fans come furnished with a loop connecting fan to waist by way of a ribbon or cord. The stick maker’s craft is quite distinct from the fan painter’s. In France, for example, the stick makers belonged to a separate guild from the fan painters and were mostly located outside of the city of Paris in places like the Oise department.
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