In 'History of the Fan' by G. Woolliscroft Rhead, readers are taken on a fascinating journey through the cultural and historical significance of fans. This detailed account explores the evolution of fans from practical tools to symbols of status and fashion, illuminating their significance in various societies. Rhead's writing style is engaging and informative, making this book a valuable resource for anyone interested in the social history of everyday objects. The author's meticulous research and attention to detail provide a comprehensive overview of the fan's role in different cultures and time periods. G. Woolliscroft Rhead, a renowned expert in decorative arts and material culture, brings his expertise to 'History of the Fan' by delving into the rich history and symbolism of this often overlooked accessory. Rhead's extensive knowledge and passion for the subject shine through in his meticulous exploration of the fan's evolution and cultural significance. I highly recommend 'History of the Fan' to readers interested in cultural history, decorative arts, or fashion studies. Rhead's thorough examination of this everyday object sheds light on its often overlooked importance and provides valuable insights into the social and cultural dynamics surrounding it.

Fashioned Texts and Painted Books examines the folding fan's multiple roles in fin-de-siecle and early twentieth-century French literature. Focusing on the fan's identity as a symbol of feminine sexuality, as a collectible art object, and, especially, as an alternative book form well suited to the reception of poetic texts, the study highlights the fan's suitability as a substrate for verse, deriving from its myriad associations with coquetry and sex, flight, air, and breath. Close readings of Stephane Mallarme's eventails of the 1880s and 1890s and Paul Claudel's Cent phrases pour eventails (1927) consider both text and paratext as they underscore the significant visual interest of this poetry. Works in prose and in verse by Octave Uzanne, Guy de Maupassant, and Marcel Proust, along with fan leaves by Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Paul Gauguin, serve as points of comparison that deepen our understanding of the complex interplay of text and image that characterizes this occasional subgenre. Through its interrogation of the correspondences between form and content in fan poetry, this study demonstrates that the fan was, in addition to being a ubiquitous fashion accessory, a significant literary and art historical object straddling the boundary between East and West, past and present, and high and low art.

Fan-carving is the process of slicing wood into thin blades (feathers) and then twisting and interlocking them to create a 3-dimensional design from one piece of wood. Fans and birds are the most popular items made. Legends and customs associated with the fan bird are of a religious and spiritual nature. With the help of European museums, the Nyes have traced the history and migration of this Old World folk art from the ancient Russian region, through Europe, to North America. Preserving this folk art is the purpose of this book. It contains easy to follow step-by-step instructions on how to make fans and birds. Full color photos accompany each step. Also included are six full-scale templates: a fan, plus five birds. This book contains a comprehensive chart of twelve species of wood, each evaluated for its performance. Fan-carving is an entry level project to woodcarving. Within three hours a novice can create a very respectable bird. The story about fan-carving is as interesting as making a bird.

The fan magazine has often been viewed simply as a publicity tool, a fluffy exercise in self-promotion by the film industry. But as an arbiter of good and bad taste, as a source of knowledge, and as a gateway to the fabled land of Hollywood and its stars, the American fan magazine represents a fascinating and indispensable chapter in journalism and popular culture. Anthony Slide's Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine provides the definitive history of this artifact. It charts the development of the fan magazine from the golden years when Motion Picture Story Magazine and Photoplay first appeared in 1911 to its decline into provocative headlines and titillation in the 1960s and afterward. Slide discusses how the fan magazines dealt with gossip and innuendo, and how they handled nationwide issues such as Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, World War II, the blacklist, and the death of President Kennedy. Fan magazines thrived in the twentieth century, and they presented the history of an industry in a unique, sometimes accurate, and always entertaining style. This major cultural history includes a new interview with 1970s media personality Rona Barrett, as well as original commentary from a dozen editors and writers. Also included is a chapter on contributions to the fan magazines from well-known writers such as Theodore Dreiser and e. e. cummings. The book is enhanced by an appendix documenting some 268 American fan magazines and includes detailed publication histories.

A comprehensive and authoritative account of the history of the Japanese fan. The 200 plus full color photographs carefully selected from collections worldwide include works by Korin and Sotatsu as well as Ukiyo-e prints by Buncho, Shunsho, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi and Kunisada, together with details focusing on the fine lacquer and inlay. This is an anthology of the best and most representative Japanese fans and an essential in the libraries of art historians, collectors and all interested in the Japanese way of life.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western scientific interest in China focused primarily on natural history. Prominent scholars in Europe as well as Westerners in China, including missionaries, merchants, consular officers, and visiting plant hunters, eagerly investigated the flora and fauna of China. Yet despite the importance and extent of this scientific activity, it has been entirely neglected by historians of science. This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino-Western relations. The author gives a panoramic view of how the British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied, and represented China's natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China. Using the example of British naturalists in China, the author argues for reinterpreting the history of natural history, by including neglected historical actors, intellectual traditions, and cultural practices. His approach moves beyond viewing the history of science and empire within European history and considers the exchange of ideas, aesthetic tastes, material culture, and plants and animals in local and global contexts. This compelling book provides an innovative framework for understanding the formation of scientific practice and knowledge in cultural encounters. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction I. The Port 1. Natural History in a Chinese Entrepà ́t 2. Art, Commerce, and Natural History II. The Land 3. Science and Informal Empire 4. Sinology and Natural History 5. Travel and Fieldwork in the Interior Epilogue Appendix: Selected Biographical Notes Abbreviations Notes Index Fa-ti Fan's study of the encounter between the British culture of the naturalist and the Chinese culture of the Qing is both a delight and a revelation. The topic has scarcely been addressed by historians of science, and this work fills important gaps in our knowledge of British scientific practice in a noncolonial context and of Chinese reactions to Western science in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition to the culture of Victorian naturalists and Sinology, Fan shows an admirable grasp of visual representation in science, Chinese taxonomic schemes, Chinese export art, British imperial scholarship, and journeys of exploration. His treatment of the China trade and descriptions of Chinese markets and nurseries are especially welcome. I learned a great deal, and I strongly recommend this book. --Philip Rehbock, author of Philosophical Naturalists: Themes in Early Nineteenth-Century British Biology By focusing on the experiences of British naturalists in China during a time when it was gradually being opened up to foreign influences, Fan makes at least two important contributions to history of science: He gives us an authoritative study of British naturalists in China (as far as I know the only one of its kind), and he forces us to rethink some of our categories for doing history of science, including how we conceive of the relationship between science and imperialism, and between Western naturalist and native. Fan's scholarship is meticulous, with careful attention to detail, and his prose is clear, controlled, and succinct. --Bernard Lightman, editor of Victorian Science in Context