Home  |  Up  |  Info  |  Search  |  View basket  |  Checkout  |  Email us  |  Login

Architecture Decorative Arts Fine Art Forthcoming Titles Instruments and Technology Oriental Art Exclusive Titles 2007 - 2008 Catalogue

Catalogue >Decorative Arts >  Fans in Spain Fans in Spain Nancy Armstrong This exqusite yet highly informative new book examines the long history of fans in Spain and their place within the global history of decorative arts. "a scholarly but also fulsomely illustrated book" Country Life, September 2004 "Armstrong combines fascinating material with sweeping historical panoramas" "Recommended." CHOICE Magazine, November 2004. 270 x 215 mm 288 pages, 100 colour illustrations ISBN 0 85667 594 6 | Published Price £49.50   [View sample pages in low resolution PDF format] Online price: £35.00 / €52.50 Documentary evidence of the origin, development and use of fans has been uncovered by the author refuting the widely held belief that Spain's fans are of little importance and of recent manufacture. The work is presented in seven chapters which place the fan in chronological order within its own historical and social context. In addition there is a short history of the Guilds, the beginning of factory production in the early 19th century and a detailed account of fan-making today. The approach concentrates on the infinite variety of materials used to make fans; both the importation of those materials and their handling form the nucleus of the research. Some fans were grand and gem-encrusted emblems of authority; other were mass-produced paper trifles with political advertising. Spanish-dominated Central and South American countries provided brilliantly coloured fans made from iridescent feather-mosaics, yet, just as important in their own time, were classical paintings on fans of vellum or 'chicken-skin'. The Spaniards, equating weight with value, placed much emphasis on a fan's sticks and guards. These were often Islamic-inspired in design, made from ivory, silver-filigree, lacquer, mother-of-pearl or even aromatic woods. The author's sources have been multi-facetted. She first met the curators of the main museums in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia who endorsed the project and she was able to examine and handle every one of the thousands of fans in the Spanish Royal Collection, in the main museums and many private collections, such as that owned by the Duke of Alba. In researching the extraordinary selection of fine fans (many from other countries) in the Museo Lazaro Galdiano in Madrid, she discovered several fans commissioned by queens of Spain. Further documentary evidence was collected through the Royal archives, museum libraries, and specialist books and research papers. This is the first book on Spanish fans, either in English or Spanish; it is illustrated in colour with one hundred examples from public and private collections throughout Spain hence the title 'Fans in Spain'. Spain's history, trading exploits, and crafting of expensive and unusual materials to make fans, together with her religious, social and sartorial habits, are combined in this comprehensive and highly illustrated book. The Author Nancy Armstrong is an acknowledged authority on the history of fans. Her books have become the bibles of fan collecting: A Collectors'History of Fans (1974), The Book of Fans (1978) and Fan's: A Collectors' Guide (1984). Nancy contributed the chapter on the fans of Spain to Otros Abanicus, an exhibition of modern Spanish fans mounted by Banco Exterior de Espagna