Etiquette from Mrs. Adams

“In the days of Louis XIV and XV, fans glistened with gilding and gems, and were ornamented by Boucher and Watteau. These works of art were often sold at as high a figure as $75. The Chinese and French are the great rivals in fan making. To such a degree of excellence has it arrived in France, that a fan selling for one cent, goes through twenty different operations, performed by as many pairs of hands.” -The Origins of Fans, 1878

On Fans

Dear Mrs. Adams– 

Please tell me the proper way fans are carried or worn at formal gatherings. –An Interested Reader

Sometimes the fan is worn on a chain, and then again, it is merely carried in the hand.

On Correct Dress 

Dear Mrs. Adams– 

Kindly inform me as to the correct dress, hat, shoes, etc., for a woman who rides horseback. –A Reader 

The most sensible outfit is of rough woolen goods, the skirt divided if you ride astride, saddle-back otherwise, with no superfluous material. The coat should be strictly mannish in cut, that is cut away at the lower edge in rounded lines. The pique or linen stock collar, with a plain pin, is the most suitable style to wear, with a shirtwaist underneath the coat. 

The derby hat for women is now low crowned and has quite a wide straight brim; but if this style is not becoming to you, a plain velour felt or beaver shape is just as good. It can be kept on the head firmly by a broad elastic band and hatpin. Riding gloves should be quite large, and can be either the gauntlet or the regular short type. With this costume a riding crop is necessary, and also boots, either tan or black, patent leather or calfskin. Comfort should be your first consideration, and a neat, modish appearance your second. – San Francisco Call, 1911

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

The Etiquette of Fans

Looking obscenely gauche, these three are completely unaware that feather tipped fans are rather passé.

Facts About Fans

Some of the Most Fashionable and High Priced  

It was written of an English actress: 

“Assume her fashionable if you can, 

And catch the graces of her fan.” 

And what countless numbers of grateful breeze compellers are now waving over this summer-heated land of ours! “Gauze fans are all the rage this season.” said a salesman in one of Boston's largest retail stores to a reporter, “and heliotrope is the favorite shade. The tendency is toward still larger fans. Perhaps the most stylish, and at the same time the most showy fan, is one made of ostrich feathers, with a marabout aigrette in the centre. It is called the Langtry fan by some dealers and by others, the Mary Anderson, and comes in all colors. It doesn't close up, and the wavy tips of the feathers make it very graceful and pretty.” China is called the fatherland of fans, and their use has been traced almost as far back as history reaches. While they are now made of ivory, wood, leather, silk, paper, feathers, etc., the earliest fans were probably the leaves of trees or wings of birds. 

Fans were introduced into England about the beginning of the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's day no lady thought of going abroad without a fan, and in speaking of a fop in “Love's Labor Lost,” he says : “ — Oh, a most dainty man! To see him walk before a lady and bear a fan.” When Elizabeth died, the royal wardrobe contained no less than twenty-seven fans. Fan exhibitions have been given in England, and an opera fan was once brought out in London giving the box numbers and the names of subscribers. The Italian fan of the last century was often finely painted after some mythological or sacred subject of one of the great masters. The Spanish fan, nicely colored, represented some incident of gallantry or love, the stick being of mother of pearl, gaily carved and gilt. The small Dutch ivory fan was beautifully painted by one of the masters of the low countries, and the German fan possessed a marked nationality, with its painted ivory stick, sometimes ingeniously carved a corbeille. 

In the hand of the Spanish beauty it is well known that the fan is made to express love, hope, disdain, anger and other emotions. The “dagger fan” of China is an instrument for the still more powerful expression of the feelings. It is an elegant imitation in lacquer of the common folding fan, but in reality is the sheath of a deadly blade. The uses of the fan in the Flowery Kingdom, however, are almost endless. Maps are printed on its face and important events are frequently published by its means. At the time of the missionary riots in 1873 at Pekin, popular ill-feeling was excited against the missionaries by inflammatory pictures on fans. 

All over the Empire the fan is as much used by men as by women. The folding fan generally obtains, and it is stuck in the high boot of the full dressed Chinaman or at the back of the neck in the collarless jacket of the coolie. The schoolmaster raps the knuckles of unruly boys with it, and the beggar holds it out for alms. In the higher Chinese circles, white silk stretched tightly over both sides of a narrow frame of a round, sexagonal, octagonal or polygonal form is considered the ne plus ultra of elegant refinement, especially so when some charming study in flowers or landscape painting appears on one side and a verse addressed to the friend for whom it is intended, and signed by the author, is written on the other. An ode to the fan by an Oriental poet begins thus : — “By thy aid, gentle gales perennial blow.” 

According to Chinese etiquette, a Chinaman on horseback or in a sedan chair, meeting an equal of his acquaintance on foot, must dismount, be it only to make a passing bow; or two friends meeting in chairs should both dismount to salute. But to avoid the inconvenience of frequently stopping to dismount at the appearance of every friend, it is allowable to hold the fan so as to screen the face from view, and the two may pass without ceremony, or as if they were strangers. Almost every large city, and certainly every division of the Chinese Empire, has its own characteristic fan. 

“Is this the busiest time in the fan trade?” asked the reporter of the salesman. “Of course we have a large demand for the most serviceable fans, but the trade in the better qualities comes both earlier and later in the year. In the month just closed there were a great many weddings, and we sold large numbers of white lace fans from $40 to $30 and upward. Then, the school exhibitions have taken place, and there were frequent calls for white fans for the ‘sweet girl graduates.’ Christmas is a favorable season lor the trade, as fans are very suitable for gifts. We sell many crepe de chine fans now, in cream, white and heliotrope, ornamented with bird designs, and also crepe de chine spangled. Quill fans are light and graceful, and those with broad folds very easy, breezy and Japanesey. Feather tipped fans are rather passé.” – Boston Herald, 1887

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Fashion Accessory Etiquette History

Under Louis the XIV, the custom of the walking stick was introduced to the French court.  It became fashionable for men and women alike to carry the long, slender sticks.  Louis was said to have never been seen publicly without a walking stick. 

Walking Sticks

The walking stick, or cane, has a history that reaches back to biblical times. The Hebrews carried long, crutched sticks like those of the shepherds who attended the flocks. The young Athenian dandies also carried walking sticks while Greece was still an infant civilization. Some were tall like those of the Hebrews; some were short like the modern riding-crop.

Some walking sticks were short, like the modern riding-crop

In Europe is the walking stick probably took the place of the sword when it began to disappear after the age of chivalry. Apparently, however, its use did not become general until the time of Queen Elizabeth, when everyone carried a cane or stick to be fashionable. The celebrated portrait of Charles I shows the king with his left arm akimbo, with his right hand resting on a long walking stick.

"I walk tall and carry a long stick!" Though also used ecclesiastically, etiquette for the use of walking sticks was actually defined at Versailles. No one was allowed to carry a walking stick or cane in the presence of the King. Louis XIV had restricted the use of a walking stick, or cane, to aristocracy alone, and forbade anyone of lower rank from carrying walking sticks in his presence.  He had one walking stick alone that was ornamented with 24 diamonds.

Under Louis the XIV, the custom of the walking stick was introduced to the French court.  It became fashionable for men and women alike to carry the long, slender sticks. The women's walking sticks were invariably decorated with love knots.

"A collector of walking sticks is termed a 'rabologist?!?' Are you certain about that?"

Gloves

Gloves are very old and were invented for the purposes of protection. We find them particularly prevalent among early peoples in cold regions.

  

During the 13th century women began to wear gloves for the purposes of ornament... and still do in the 21st century.  ~  
Glove Etiquette: Don’t eat, drink, or smoke with gloves on.  Don’t play cards with gloves on.  Don’t apply makeup with gloves on.  Don’t wear jewelry over gloves, with the exception of bracelets.  Don’t make a habit of carrying your gloves.  Source~ Maura Graber, The RSVP Institute

The ancient Persians and Romans wore gloves.  And Homer Laërtes  is described as wearing gloves while walking in his garden. Gloves of leather were worn at a very early period in war, and in the chase to protect the hands. In the 8th and 9th centuries the custom of wearing gloves was almost universal in Germany and in Scandinavian countries.

"The universality of human desire for symbolic signs of private emotions is ever standing. The emotion of grief at the loss of relatives and friends by death has found in dress fertile fields for expressing the desire. Black, death's particular emblem, has been used for this purpose certainly since the early part of the 14th century. Chaucer and Shakespeare give occasional allusions to it to use, particularly in the case of the widow. He tells us also of a curious custom of giving away black gloves to be worn "in memoriam. "In 1736 at the funeral of Gov. Belcher of Boston more than 1000 pairs of mouning gloves were distributed. At the funeral of Andrew Faneuil 3000 pairs were given away." From "The Customs of Mankind," Lillian Eichler

From the 10th to the 13th century gloves showed a remarkable development. Gauntlets of leather were worn by men; those in military costume wore gloves the backs of which were covered by overlapping plates. 

Andrew Faneuil... At his funeral, 3000 pairs of "mourning gloves" were given away.

During the 13th century women began to wear gloves for the purposes of ornament, most of them being made of linen and reaching to the elbow. In the 16th-century Queen Elizabeth set the fashion for wearing jeweled and embroidered gloves. In France, under Louis the XIV gloves made of kid made their appearance. The women wore gloves of knitted silk.

In France, the fan reached the height of its development under the reign of Louis the XIV

Fans

Fans have an interesting history.  The first fan was probably a palm leaf or some other natural device appropriated by man to keep away flies and mats, perhaps even to cool the fevered brow in tropical climates. We know that in Egypt, 2000 years ago, fashionable hosts had special servants to stand behind guests and fan them with huge papyrus bands.

Depiction of a Chinese woman holding a fan.

Both men and women carry fans in China.  Many carry with them also a pair of chopsticks talked into the girdle. In Japan the woman does not consider herself well-dressed unless her fan  harmonizes with the rest of her costume.

The Japanese woman does not consider herself well-dressed unless her fan  harmonizes with the rest of her costume.

In France the fan reached the height of its development under Louis the XIV. We read that "fans are invariable accompaniment of feminine costume, and they are of rare beauty, exquisitely painted and mounted on sticks of carved or painted wood, mother-of-pearl, carved ivory, or gold. There were over 500 makers of fans in Paris, and they enjoyed special privileges accorded by the king."

Ostrich fans, to match or harmonize with the costume, are fashionable to-day as they have been for a century.

The fan is still a popular accessory and we find it the "accomplishment of feminine costume" in the ballroom. Ostrich fans, to match or harmonize with the costume, are fashionable to-day as they have been for a century.

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia