fan

Summary

Fine vellum leaf painted with trompe l'oeil of lace on a background of purple and gold figured silk. (Lace probably Mechlin or Antwerp). Leaf Italian or French. Central vignette after Watteau, of a troupe of commedia dell'arte characters, probably players of the comedie - Italienne from the Theatre in the Hotel de Bougogne in Paris. The five characters (including a Columbine in her Harlequin costume, the clown musician, and the spying figure) peer from behind a curtain in the centre. Reverse is less skillfully painted - with lace on a blue ground and a trail of mauve and yellow ombre striped ribbon and a vignette of an Italiante landscape. Sticks of blonde tortoiseshell and guards same. Cloute with red gold in a design of dolphins and grotesques. The guards are cloute with foliage and birds. Sticks maybe 1720s?