What's All the Fanfare?

 

QUESTION: I was digging around in my mother’s attic the other day and discovered a flat box containing two very beautiful fans. I imagine these must have belonged to her mother or grandmother. What can you tell me about them? Do they have any value?

ANSWER: Fans have been around for a long time. As a piece of functional art, they go back as far as ancient Egypt. 

The Egyptians saw them as sacred instruments used in religious ceremonies. They also became a symbol of royal power. But it was the Chinese who evolved the fan into a complex, decorated instrument. The Japanese took the fan one step further and produced a folding version, supposedly based on the folding wings of a bat. When Marco Polo returned to Venice, he brought with him fans made of vellum, paper, swan skin with blades of gold, silver, and inlaid mother-of-pearl.

The original purpose of hand fans was to create a breeze, but they had many other uses. They could be used as protection against rain, as a tray for offering or receiving refreshments, and to hide bad teeth. European women would use fans to hide their faces during mass.

By the 18th century, the folding fan had come into its own in Paris. Delicately hand-painted floral motifs, on a structure of decorative sticks, came into common use. In fact, any wealthy lady worth her salt had to have fans as accessories to her wardrobe.

These wealthy women developed a whole language of salutations and signals around their fans. For instance, carrying a fan in the left hand signified "desirous of acquaintance" while allowing it to rest on the right cheek meant "yes" and on the left "no." Drawing a fan across the forehead meant "We are watched" and drawing a fan across the eyes meant "I am sorry." Opening a fan wide meant "wait for me."

Dropping a fan meant "We could be friends." If a lady fluttered her fan, it meant “I am married.” But if she placed the handle of her fan to her lips, it meant "kiss me."  An open fan held in the right hand in front of the face—the ultimate form of seduction— meant "follow me"

The blades of these delicate instruments could be of carved ivory or tortoise shell inlaid with precious inlaid metals and elaborate jewels. Less expensive fan sticks were usually of sandalwood or fruitwood. These rococo fans were the finest ever made, and many fo the designs took the form of stylized art.

By the latter part of the 18th century, fans had gained popularity as a fashion accessory in the upper circles of American society. While fan makers imported finer sticks, they made their own wooden ones.

The earliest fans made in any large quantity in the United States were paper souvenir fans depicting historical scenes. as well as current events. Lithographers portrayed views of New York's Crystal Palace, 1853, the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, printed in black on a cream background, and the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

By the late 19th century, fans displayed images of nearly every product. Every department store and every manufacturer advertised on fans, including such products as coffee, milk, bread, carpet sweepers, restaurants, cafes, theaters, sewing machines, etc. 

Before the advent of air-conditioning, funeral parlors gave out fans t mourners. These were as much to keep mourners cooler in warm weather as they were to wave the stink of the corpse away. These mourning fans became a social necessity. Manufacturers often fashioned them in black materials to coincide with the black clothing worn during recognized periods of mourning. Of course, it didn't hurt to print the name and address of the mortician on the guards of a cheap wood fan.

Fans are still relatively inexpensive—except the jewel-encrusted ones—so they’re ideal to collect, especially for the novice collector. Many sell for $5-$20 online. Some of the most sought after fans came from the E.S. Hunt Company, later called the Allen Fan Company. In 1868, Hunt patented the process by which he assembled the fan sticks and the fan leaf in one step. This included folding or creasing and gluing the leaf to the fan sticks at the same time under pressure. This was America's first fan to appear and unfortunately folded, like its fans, in1910.  

Serious fan collectors often prize the simpler fans with printed leaves and plain sticks and guards. Many of these simpler folding fans provide a glimpse of particular times in history. Some once served as records of special occasions, such as births and marriages. Often fans celebrated military and naval victories. And some did the same for national holidays. Collectors find such a quantity of fans that many specialize in one particular subject, such as advertising fans. Unlike many other delicate antiques and collectibles, folding fans have survived for decades and often centuries in superb condition. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Art Deco World" in the 2024 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Postcards from the Attic

QUESTION: My grandfather collected postcards for years. Now I have his collection. While it’s great to look at, I have no idea of where to start finding out about the hundreds of cards he collected. Can you please help me?

ANSWER: To begin, deltiology—postcard collecting—is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world. Most people collect postcards for four reasons: (1) Nostagia. Many older collectors seek out pictures of “the good ole days” or "the way it used to be.” Younger ones seek out the places or characters from their childhood. (2) Cost. Many items have soared in price, but postcards can still be obtained for from 10-cents to $10 each. (3) Investment. Postcards that sold for 10 cents less than 10 years ago now bring $1 to $5 and more. (4) Art and printing. The art on a postcard often determined the printing process and vice versa, from the lithochromes of the 1890's to the photochromes (photo cards) of today.

There are still many millions of postcards packed away in attics. Many, neatly tucked away in albums for the last 90-100 years, are in pristine condition. When postcards sold for 1 cent to 10 cents each, not very many people thought it worthwhile to search a dusty attic for them. Today, that’s all changed.

You’ll find postcards for sale at garage sales, flea markets, antique shops, and stamp shows. The most popular ones are the “hometown views.” Many show main streets with gas lights, trolleys, horse-drawn vehicles, store signs, sidewalk sales, bustles, hoopskirts, knickers, hightop shoes, and Model-T Fords. Those who collect for nostalgic reasons love these.



Then there are those from family vacations and foreign tours. Those who travel frequently often bring back views of the places they’ve been on postcards to put into albums either in place of their own photographs or in addition to them. They could pick up free cards from motels, hotels, resorts, and restaurants and, of course, purchase many scenic view cards of popular vacation spots. In fact, the act of sending picture postcards to the folks back home began as an American pastime.

And you shouldn’t ignore the greeting postcards, sent by Victorians in the latter part of the 19th century to express holiday and birthday greetings.

Postcard collecting was a huge craze in the early 20th century, with peak years running from about 1907 to 1913. People used these cards to keep in touch with friends and family, much as people use Facebook today. Couples courted using postcards and strangers met other strangers in foreign countries. By the end of the peak period in 1913, people had sent over 968,000,000 postcards. If even a fraction of all those cards have made it into the hands of dealers, the supply would be overwhelming. In fact, because so many have come into the market, the price for most postcards remains relatively reasonable.

Most collectors seem to collected cards for their pictorial value and not as much for their condition. During the peak years, many seemed willing to pay a few cents for old cards, focusing on topics like bridges and courthouses which are of little interest today. And with over 120 different topics to choose from, it’s no wonder that the hobby has grown so much.

Many collectors refused to consider any card made after 1920. They especially liked photographic postcards for their historical significance. Mid-20th-century roadside and local views have now increased in popularity and price. And it’s become difficult to find city views from the 1940s and 1950s.

Dating used postcards is simple—just check the postmark on back. However, it can be harder to figure the date of unused ones. Early cards from before 1900 to 1918 have good detail and no border.

Those with a white border date from 1919 to 1932. Most of the cards were view cards which were often pale with low contrast. Paper stock at the time had a coated surface, resulting in a flat non-glossy appearance. 

Linen texture-cards dominated the market from 1933 until the early 1950's. The majority of view cards from this era are boring and unattractive, especially those featuring scenery. Real photos of tourist areas were also fairly common in this era because the linen texture actually took away from the picture. Photographic cards from this time are generally glossier and more contrasty than earlier ones and have titles in white letters close to the bottom of the picture.





As with postage stamps, the condition of a postcard falls into one of six categories—mint, near mint, excellent, very good, good, and fair. Cards in the last condition aren’t considered collectible unless they’re very rare.

To find out more about your cards and to maintain and grow your collection, you might want to join one of over 70 postcard clubs in the U.S. Most of these clubs issue bulletins that have valuable postcard information, stories, and pictures. Even if a club isn’t close enough to make it convenient for you to attend meetings, it’s worth joining, if only for the bulletins and membership rosters, so that you can begin trading with other members.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about western antiques in the special 2019 Winter Edition, "The Old West," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook. 

History on the Dining Table

QUESTION: Ever since I began collecting antiques, I’ve always been fascinated by the beautiful Staffordshire transferware designs on dinnerware. Recently, I saw several stunning pieces at an antique show. These featured American battle scenes and images of historical sites. I thought transferware had only bucolic scenes of the English countryside. Why did English potters produce this type of ware and when was it popular?

ANSWER: That’s a very good question. In fact, most Americans today probably don’t know that English potters were some of our country’s staunch supporters, even risking near treason to do so.

It was bad enough that American soldiers defeated the British in the Revolutionary War, but then on December 14, 1815, the British military conceded defeat to the Americans for a second time. Josiah Wedgwood, a prominent 18th-century English potter, had proclaimed the American Revolutionary War a serious mistake for Britain. He and his fellow potters of the Staffordshire district felt no better about the War of 1812. After all, with the destruction,   blockades, and hatred it generated, warfare was bad for business since the Americans had always been good customers.



To make amends, the Staffordshire potters promptly began decorating their dinner services, tea sets, and assorted crockery with scenes of American military victories guaranteed to make   Americans proud while leaving British generals and admirals glowering in disgust. To add to the victories, the potters exported dinnerware with images of America's war heroes, elder statesmen and favorite politicians. With these, the potters of Staffordshire won back the hearts of their American customers. Historical Staffordshire became the success the potters had hoped for—an economic victory where the British military had failed.

Historical Staffordshire wares were popular, durable, mass-produced in quantity and reasonably priced. They reached a wide audience and offer today’s collectors with fascinating glimpses of America’s past.

Although the Staffordshire potteries produced mugs, pitchers, foot baths, and chamber pots, dinnerware and tea services dominated production of historical Staffordshire ceramics. The potteries first produced it in pearlware and later in a number of durable white wares. Both pearl and white wares were almost as white as porcelains but were rugged enough to survive rough oceanic voyages. Artists decorated the earliest of these with printed transfers in deep cobalt blue that had become popular in the United States. A wider range of colors followed in the 1830s. Running short of military victories and notable personages, the potteries turned to more peaceful subjects, such as individual buildings, towns, idyllic landscapes, and the newest advances in Victorian transportation.

Staffordshire potteries manufactured historical dinnerware from about 1820 to 1860, reaching the height of its popularity between 1820 and 1845.

Printing scandalous portraitures to promote sales was nothing new to the Staffordshire potters. Putting pots before principle was an old habit. Britain’s politicians had long been lampooned and her military heroes hailed on transfer printed pots and mugs to promote sales at home.

During the War of 1812, industrious British engravers supported the cause of American freedom with near-treasonable anti-government images of cringing British lions emblazoned with insulting, anti-English slogans. These could be slipped out through the neutral Netherlands and taken to shore by any number of unrecorded vessels navigating up lesser traveled American waterways.

The designs on historical Staffordshire wares were examples of an early mass- production technique of the growing Industrial Revolution, transfer printing. England's potters developed the technique during the 18th century and perfected it in the 19th century. Industrialization provided British potters with the most rapidly growing stock of earthenware bodies in history. Transfer printing allowed them to quickIy produce large numbers of identically decorated wares from this stock for the first time in potting history. Together the new, white earthenware bodies and the printed patterns would provide a popular, quality ware at a fairly low price, a ware many families of modest means could easily afford.



The quality of the transfer printed pattern, however, was crucial. The artwork determined whether the ware sold well or not. Artists created transfer printed patterns, some of whom had great skill while others didn’t. The largest pottery manufacturers hired their own artist engravers. Smaller companies purchased their patterns from engraving firms. The transfer printing process perfected by Sadler and Green of Liverpool in 1756 allowed a potter to duplicate a pattern by transferring it from an engraved and pigmented copper plate to a ceramic vessel using a specially treated paper.

Artists copied artwork directly from books of the day and from competing engravers' portfolios. They created illustrations for dining services featuring different central prints on each piece, all following a common theme—a "City Series" or a series of "Picturesque Views" for example. Since the central print varied from plate to plate, the artists created a standard border design  to identify the pieces of a single service. Most Staffordshire potters identified specific border designs as their own unique trademarks. In most cases that view was respected. However, smaller companies did copy these designs from time to time.

Women did the meticulous work of correctly placing the inky paper carrying the pattern onto the bisque pottery and for joining the seams of the borders and designs. Most took great care in doing this since they were aware of the Victorian ideal of the "perfect finish." Many of the historical Staffordshire prints how these ladies tried to achieve that ideal. Their printed patterns appear seamless although they placed most of them using several pieces.

However, hastily engraved, copper plates provided transfers that were often larger than the  pottery on which they were to be placed. These oversized patterns, once transferred to their papers, had to be cut and trimmed to fit the smaller vessels. The trimming often led to virtually illegible inscriptions as the women cropped the letters away. While the images frequently remained whole, the words suffered as few of the women trimming the prints could read. They trimmed that which had little meaning to them. Not that it mattered too much because many of their customers couldn’t read either.

And while housewives used historical Stafforshire ware for serving guests and at holidays, eventually the transfer images evolved into peaceful bucolic scenes and souvenir plates.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about western antiques in the special 2019 Winter Edition, "The Old West," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.