Horn is treated in the same process of flat piercing: this was extensively practised during the whole of the eighteenth century, and many ‘minuet’ fans were made. A beautiful Italian example of these ‘minuet’ fans is in the Wyatt collection, decorated with silver spangles, with a white silk connecting ribbon.
Double or reversible fans open both ways—either from left to right or the reverse. These were in vogue during the latter years of the eighteenth century, and were made of various materials, but usually ivory, with painted ornaments. The most interesting were, however, those of sandalwood, with three printed medallions on either side of the fan, giving twelve subjects. The device, although surprising at first sight, is really simple, and consists of printing each blade with portions of two different subjects in the centre, one set of halves being exposed, the other covered by the blade next following.
These fans were common to most of the Western countries of Europe, a large number being made in England with subjects after Angelica Kauffmann and others.
The materials employed for the mount are chicken skin (so called, but really kid subjected to a particular treatment), asses’ skin, vellum, parchment, silk of various kinds, satin, lace, and paper.
The leaf or mount is sometimes single, but more often double. Those of the richer fans are painted either in transparent colour or in gouache (body colour); the latter, however, must not be applied too thickly on account of its liability to crack.
[Illustration: Marriage of Cupid & Psyche, c. 1760. stick modern.
When the leaf is ready for mounting,_ i.e._ after the painting is finished, it is pleated in a mould consisting of two pieces of thick, strong paper or cardboard, specially prepared with a coating of an oily nature; the leaf being placed between, and the mould closed and pressed. The brins are then introduced between the folds, and fixed by means of glue. This mould was invented about 1760, and the manufacture of it has remained since that date in the French family of Petit.[90] ‘This operation of pleating,’ says M. Duvelleroy (_Rapports du Jury International, Exposition Universelle_, 1867, vol. iv.), ‘very simple at present, was formerly very complicated; it was necessary for the éventaillistes to exercise the most scrupulous exactitude; now the mould dispenses with this care.’