The most eye-catching was a rare printed Jacobite fan with a hand-coloured etching on the 11in (28.5cm) diameter leaf by Sir Robert Strange.
It shows Bonnie Prince Charlie in armour attended by Cameron of Lochiel, depicted as Mars, and Flora Macdonald as Bellona, god and goddess of war.
Venus, Cupid and Britannia dispense Peace and Justice, and Jupiter strikes down Envy and Discord with thunderbolts sending the Hanoverian family into retreat.
Catalogued c.1745, this was actually a post-Culloden (1746) fantasy, not least in portraying the Presbyterian, pro-government Flora as a Stuart warrior. But it was romance, not facts, which fuelled the Jacobite dream and still fuels the market.
Estimated at £2500-5000, the 11¼in (28.5cm) long fan, contained in its original red morocco leather case, sold to a Scottish collector at £8000.
National sentiment aside, top-sellers in the very active fans market tend to be fine Canton export items, despite the high ivory content in many. One such led the fans at Evesham – a c.1800 example. Large at 14½in (37cm) diameter, it was finely and profusely carved and pierced with various Chinese scenes and doubled the top estimate in selling to a Chinese bidder for £12,000.
Fantastic fan in Newbury
Another of these trophy pieces was a c.1810 Chinese export ivory cockade brisé, the prize lot among the 35 fans offered at Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium) at Newbury on October 10.
Standing 21in (54cm) high, the fan, carved with seven landscape or figural reserves on a flowering scroll foliate ground, was estimated at £3000-5000 and sold to a UK bidder at £7500.
