1902 Anglo-Japanese treaty souvenir fans – £40 at Special Auction Services
This is an area where £100 can still go a long way. For example, two Edwardian paper fans advertising the Carlton Hotel and the Hotel Metropole in London went at £80 while a pair of Anglo-Japanese wood and paper folding fans displaying the Union Jack and the Rising Sun sold below estimate at £40 to a collector intending to give them to a museum.
Made to commemorate the 1902 Treaty of Alliance, they came in their original box.
However, a paper fan with wooden sticks printed in gilt RMS Lusitania made a triple-estimate £120, illustrating the allure of doomed liners. “A shame it wasn’t from the Titanic,” mused cataloguer Harriet Mustard.
