We have just taken stock of some gorgeous hand marbled Japanese style Sensu fans. Sensu being the Japanese name for a traditional folding fan. Our fans are hand crafted in a Florentine Atelier, which got us thinking about the history of fans……

Fans have been used throughout history. The earliest depictions show Egyptians in Ancient Egypt with long handled fronds made from palm and lotus leaves. On the wall of Rameses III’s temple a fan bearer in carved relief is depicted carrying a long-handled fan decorated with feathers either of Ostrich or peacock. Howard Carter and his team on discovering Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, found fans amongst all the amazing treasures which where to follow the boy king into the afterlife. The most famous being the golden fan. A semi-circular piece of wood on a long handle, which had been covered with sheets of gold depicting the Pharoah in a chariot, hunting ostrich. The fan would have been edged with ostrich feathers, long since disintegrated apart from the remaining quills still in place.

Fans, rigid, feather or flag style were used across the ancient world from the Far East to Ancient Greece to keep insects at bay and for ceremonial uses. In Ancient Greece the only depiction we have is on ceramic wares such as Greek amphorae, showing long handled fans with feathers, ostrich more than likely.

Ancient China had many different styles and uses, as well as using bamboo and silk in the construction. Fans where not just for the royalty and wealthy, hand fans were used by the poor for fanning fires and cooling food down. 

The Silk Road played its part in the history of the fan. The earliest sign of a fan in Europe was around the 6^thcentury, where it was used in Christian services to keep the constricted bread and wine free from insects. The fan usage gradually died out, and it wasn’t until the 16^th Century when the folding fan invented in Japan in the 8^th Century was introduced by the Portuguese traders. The ultimate fashion accessory had arrived in the form of the folding fan.

Catherine de Medici took a fancy to them and with her marriage to the Duke of Orleans, later the King of France, the fan culture took hold in the French court.  In the 18^th Century the secret language of fans was a popular way of sending discreet messages. In the 19th century artisan fan makers tried to outdo each other in their craft, using luxurious materials such as lace, hand painted silk, exotic woods carved into fretwork, precious metals and gem stones. The fan from a simple everyday object once again became a symbol of wealth and status as well as a portable work of art.

Now adays they are a rather handy item to keep in your bag for when the temperature rises or to ask someone do they love you?