'This Work of Art was formed by a lady of exalted rank (since deceased).'

This rather enigmatic statement relates to an unusual decorative object, a wooden brisé fan—that is, a fan made only of blades, with no mount—some of which are hand-painted with small illustrations, and/or signatures. Sotheby’s auctioned the fan in 1910 as part of a sale of “A Magnificent Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents, the Property of a Gentleman.” Sotheby’s reveals little, save a comprehensive list of contributors, and the above mysterious statement about its first owner, the “lady of exalted rank.”

In 1911, a photograph of one completed side was published in the Sketch Magazine; a close inspection reveals that the blades have been autographed and decorated by prominent Victorian artists and musicians. The caption included a comprehensive list of contributors, forty in total, including Walter Crane. The Sketch note states that the fan was “made by Walter Crane,” (who decorated the guards and likely painted the peacock feathers that span the bottom of the blades) and owned by Ernest Brown & Phillips, operators of the Leicester Gallery.

As it turns out, sometime after the 1910 Sotheby’s sale, the fan somehow made its way into a private collection in America. But it wasn’t until late 2009 that this enigmatic fan returned to the attention of the larger art world when it came up for auction in New Jersey. The outstanding quality of the piece was again revealed: the vivid colours, incredible attention to detail, and most notably the ability to see the array of contributors on the verso—mostly musicians. But along with this reintroduction, the mystery has resurfaced: to whom did this extraordinary object belong, and why was it made?

This paper presents research to date on the Crane Fan, examining it as a document of an impressive web of Victorians circa 1895, one in which notable Aesthetes from across the spectrum of the arts moved around one particular patron who had the connections—and friendships—to form this extraordinary item.