REVIVAL OF THE FAN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 326, 7 January 1911, Page 2

REVIVAL OF THE FAN.

Fans —those age-old implements o! coquetry—-are to be revived agaiu, and lessons from an expert will have to be taken if due effect is to be got from their use. The patched and powdered ladies of t.iie eighteenth century evolved a. vast deal of meaning from the flirt of a fan ; in level, I am not sure that the word 1 'flirt," now part of all human civi'isee! speech, eliel not come, in the tirst instance, from the handling of this feminine weapon. In the eighteenth century the fan was primarily a weapon or defence. The lady raised it to hide the blush on her roughed cheek, to look roguishly over the top, to avoid the bore and to p.mish the fo,i. At. that, period it was very small, very costly, and painted and carved by the most famous artist. Afterwards, in the nintceiith con turv, it grew in size, lessened in value, and was ol'tui used in offensive attack, such as rappin c impudent fellows over the knuckles, or as a wand to wave the pasii of the other

s;?x away. At the period of the 'nineties t'.:c fan waxed to gljrnnlic proporti n could no 'lender lift r-iiircted, I>nt I>-J to be composed of o ; iii;-h fv.t-.-.cre, like a coster-girl's hat.

In this latter cnise it served as a screen for conlidence in society an'l at the opera, find the talcs told behind those fans would form amusing memoirs of the late Victorian age.— "Sketch."