‘A Focus on Paris’ exhibition extended to 17th August 2024
Focusing on Paris as a cultural hub of inventiveness and entrepreneurship, this captivating exhibition of around 90 fans shows Paris as a city at the cutting edge of artistic craft, aviation and fashion.
From the late 17th century, Paris was famed for its skill and ingenuity in fan making, using not only natural materials such as narrow strips of straw and slivers of mother-of-pearl but also silver and gilding to decorate and enhance fans. Generally made by anonymous craftsmen in the 18th century, by the mid 19th century the makers and the artists were signing fans, giving the objects, and in some cases their owners, an important identity.
It was not long after the invention of the cabriolet carriage, the hot air balloon and later airships and aircraft that they are found depicted on the leaves of fans – early records of important historical events.
Less lavish fans but with a significant emphasis, those made during the French Revolutionary period reveal propaganda and political messages and as Paris was host to seven international world fairs between 1850 and 1940, the power of advertising through souvenir fans becomes clear. That theme is carried on with fans focusing on Paris society in the 1920s and its place as a leader in the world of fashion.
