Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring
|
click on the photo of Goodbye Lie N203 from our own handmade jewelry collection inspired by The Goodbye Lie, a Victorian novel by Jane Marie |
|
Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring
|
click on the photo of Goodbye Lie N203 from our own handmade jewelry collection inspired by The Goodbye Lie, a Victorian novel by Jane Marie |
|
Gracious Living - Victorian Life Hoop Skirts Odds 'n Ends - Miscellaneous Romance
|
 |
fan in the Musée d'Orsay
The Hand Fan Speaks There is a Language of Flowers that was very popular in Victorian times. Back then, individual species of flowers had different meanings when given and received. Curiously, the hand fan can also speak to us, but few know this language because it is rarely practiced today. Why? It’s certainly not because the gestures aren’t graceful. Simply, times changed in the early 20th century. Women just didn’t have enough hands to carry a purse, a cigarette (!), a glass of wine and a fan. Something had to give and sadly, for lovers of gracious things, it was the fan. History of the Hand Fan Although fans were first used in Asia at the beginning of the 6th century, their use was gradually constrained by strict rules of etiquette and ceremony. During the Elizabethan era, from 1558 to 1603, both men and women in Europe practiced a secret language of fanology whereby they could converse without speaking. The alphabet of the fan made it possible to spell out where a clandestine meeting might take place. The number of fan blades displayed might suggest the time. As the world spun into the 18th century, fashionable men could be seen carrying fans. However, instead of the floral or cherub or ribbon fan adornments favored by ladies, men's fans were decorated with insects and outdoor scenes. Perhaps the rules of a game or words to a poem for a recital might be hand printed on the back. Sometimes the front, instead of bearing a pastoral scene, might have a religious picture and a listing of holy days or saints. Advertisements or song lyrics were also displayed. Queen Victoria and her contemporaries loved fans. However, the queen found it none too appealing to see a man fanning himself and let this be known when she reigned over Great Britain in the 19th century. Fans promptly fell out of favor for gentlemen, and that sharp snapping sound when the fan is opened with one hand became a province restricted to women.
click on the photos of Jane Marie's original fan pillow and fan quilt to enlarge them
Antique collectors treasure fans of all shapes, sizes and materials. Quilt makers often use the pleated fan shape in their crafts. Today’s manufactured fans are often lightweight cardboard and can be found in funeral parlors (air conditioned or not) or with radio or television advertising on them. They are passed out at our very own Amelia Island Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival held every May.
Samples of the Language of Fans
As you can see, small fan gestures could change a life! How exciting and how easy the possibility for intrigue, purposeful and / or misinterpreted. It’s no wonder historic romance novels are written and read by lovers of such things. To that end, I’ve wrote The Goodbye Lie where men and women in 1882 Florida live and thrive among this kind of maneuvering. |
800+ pages HOME greenlightWRITE.com Customer Service CHILDREN TEDDY BEARS HOME
AskCaryn.com (teens)
click on the photo of Martha Bear® with her fan to enlarge it
|
If you like this information, please link to it instead of copying it. You may not display our content on a public bulletin board, ftp site, website, chat room or by any other unauthorized means. Thanks.
Copyright© 1999 - 2008 by Nancy Kamp, dba greenlightWRITE.com and Grace-Light.com. All Rights Reserved. International and US Federal Copyright Laws protect all material on this website, which may not be reprinted in any form in any media or hosted on any website. This document confers no rights whatsoever to its reader / recipient. No rights in any copyrighted material, whether exclusive or non-exclusive, may be transferred in the absence of a written agreement that is the product of the parties' negotiations, fully approved by independent counsel retained by Nancy Kamp and formally executed with manual signatures by all parties to the agreement pursuant to the statutory requirements of Section 204(a) of the Federal Copyright Act of 1976. Furthermore, anyone caught using our trademarks or copyrighted text, images, or jewelry and craft designs without permission will be reported to their billing company, their hosting company and any other related companies for account closure. We will also follow up with a copyright infringement lawsuit in accordance with the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Using the information on this site and linked to this site is done at your own risk. No promises or guarantees of any kind are intended or implied.
