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Folding Fan with Representation of a Royal Fireworks Display

1781
Not on view
The spectacular firework display painted so finely on this fan perhaps commemorates the birth of the new Dauphin, Marie Antoinette's son Louis Joseph on October 22nd, 1781, alluded to by the French royal arms to the right and the dolphins in the center. In Paris at this period, fan-making was shared between two distinct guilds: the spectacular ivory guards, carved and embellished with mother-of-pearl and gilding, were conventionally the domain of male artisans, whilst the delicately painted leaves were created by women artists. In a triumph of collaborative design, the two elements match beautifully in this example.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Folding Fan with Representation of a Royal Fireworks Display
  • Date: 1781
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Ivory, paper
  • Dimensions: 10 1/2 x 18 3/4 in. (26.7 x 47.6 cm)
  • Classification: Fans
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Henry J. Bernheim, 1959
  • Object Number: 59.13.7
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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Fan, Leaf: painted paper; sticks and guards: pierced, carved, and gilt ivory with applied mother-of-pearl; foil, German
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Hercules and Achelous, Master of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian Austrian, Ivory, probably Austrian
Hercules and Achelous
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Mirror, Johann Valentin Gevers German, Oak and pine veneered with tortoiseshell, silver, silver gilt, and green-stained ivory; mirror glass, German, Augsburg
Mirror
Johann Valentin Gevers
Johann Andreas Thelot
ca. 1710
Cabinet, Herman Doomer Dutch, Oak veneered with ebony, snakewood, rosewood, kingwood, cedar and other woods; mother-of-pearl, ivory, green stained bone, Dutch, Amsterdam
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Folding Fan with Representation of a Royal Fireworks Display - French - The Metropolitan Museum of Art