Antique French Empire Sequin, Silk and Tortoise Shell Pique Hand Fan, c.1800-1815

Oh, this is an old one!  More than 200 years, and a fragile beauty. First Empire, Napoleonic era, c.1800-1815, with an astounding amount of sparkle. I’ve owned it for decades, found it in Paris years ago. Fragile, it will be one to display but not to use. The delicate old tortoise shell sticks, guard sticks are intact but they’re holding quite a load of hand sewn gold and silver sequins that are too much of a weight to move this one in use. No matter how tempted you feel, please don’t. Very likely it was in the presence of Napoleon and Josephine at some point, a Grand Ball, or event. Can you just see it in its stunning beautiful youth!

Good to very good for age and type. These become rarer as more are lost to time and abuse. A museum piece, it does have flaws. Tortoise shell sticks are unbroken, but they’re delicate and impossibly thin. I find a bug bite at the base of one or two. The gold foil that tips the silk (sort of an organza) leaf remains but you can see it is a little split at the folds. Mother of pearl barrel rivet head is intact, holding well. I didn’t want to pull it wide open, but closed, it is just 6 7/8″ long at guard sticks. You can look it over. It’s been in archival tissue while I’ve had it, a couple decades now. I always thought I would display it in a fan frame, but just never found a place to display.  It has appeared in a few group photos over the years, always drawing questions and compliments.  Time to downsize. 

IMPORTANT NOTE regarding antique tortoise shell or ivory: We are great supporters of protection for endangered species in our modern world. We never buy or sell anything 100 years or newer; we donate to anti-poaching organizations; we don’t hunt; we conserve in ways that impact global warming (we’re totally solar at home), knowing those measures also protect the animals in the wild today. We also recognize the vast cultural history we preserve with our care and reverence for these antique objects, and agree with CITES that objects over 100 years of age have nothing whatsoever to do with species depletion in our current world. 

Our offering exceeds the age limitation of “more than 100 years of age”, and is well within the exemption for CITES regulation. If imported, met the CITES regulation. This item will be handled and shipped from our Utah business, and is not available for shipment internationally, nor within the USA to California, NY, Nevada, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington if it contains ivory, sorry. Please see our small print for more details.