A Rare Early 18th Century Allegorical Printed Fan with very...

Lot Description:

A Rare Early 18th Century Allegorical Printed Fan with very detailed leaf, showing an assembly with, amongst others, Old Father Time, Fame, Mercury, and Britannia, in a setting with buildings with multi-paned windows, men in breeches, coats and long waistcoats, carts loaded with straw, peasant workers, and hens pecking the ground. The building to the left appears to be an apothecary's shop, a sign over the entrance, with a pestle and mortar and other jars and accoutrement displayed in a large display window. To the extreme left, scrolls/documents with some wording visible are strewn on the ground. The simple ivory monture is painted in red and gold in Chinoiserie fashion, and is fitted with tortoiseshell thumb guards. In the background, distant hills and a sailing boat on water. The verso is plain cream. Together with A Gentleman's 18th Century Fan, the double leaf plain, dark lilac, the upper guards elaborately carved with birds and flowers and the gorge pierced in a regular design (2)

Condition Report:
. For the first example, sadly, quite poor, with losses to both sides of the leaf, staining, and a broken and warped, previously repaired, upper guard. To the left the leaf appears to have been shortened, making the scrolls/documents incomplete. In comparison the gentleman's fan is in quite good order, a period repair to a break on each guard, and some rubbing to the folds.