Gilded Age Fans and Their Use

 A “Second Debut” for a post addressing the faux an fiction so prevalent online…

“In the Victorian era and the gilded age there were secret codes for sending signals to those one was romantically interested in! You could hold your hold your half-opened fan to your mouth to let someone know it was okay to kiss them! Isn’t that fascinating?!” Alas, this tidbit related to me by an instructor trainee is what I call ‘Fan Fiction’ — Fans were helpful to have if one was feeling warm in a crowded ballroom, or on a hot day, prior to electrical fans and air conditioning. They were also accessories to a woman’s wardrobe, and signs of social status, depending on what materials they were made of and the beauty of their design.

🪭 🪭 🪭 🪭 🪭 🪭 🪭 🪭

“Unfortunately, the fan language — and other, similar codes like the language of the handkerchief and the language of the parasol— were largely the result of advertising campaigns meant to popularize and sell accessories. There is little evidence that the fan language was ever in widespread use, though the concept was satirized by several writers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Besides being rather impractical, fan codes were a bit dangerous; an unconscious fidget or desire to actually fan herself could embroil a lady in a totally unintentional feud— or marriage. Not to mention the consequences if the matron acting as chaperone to a courting couple had, a few years earlier, employed the fan language to win her own husband!” -Esti Brennan, Clements Library Chronicles–  Photo credit, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Blake Ritson Photo: Barbara Nitke/HBO

An Early ‘Advertorial,’ Disguised as Fashionable Etiquette

An amusing little book has been published in Berlin, entitled “The Fan Language of Queen Isabella.” In its introduction, which copies the Spanish work of Fenella, it is as easy to make oneself understood in the language of the fan as in that of flowers, and since the sentences are of necessity short, it is easy to learn them by heart.” It gives a manual for this voiceless speech, consisting of the usual sentences in love and friendship, with appropriate directions as to their expression by means of the fan, in part as follows: 

• You have won my love—the right hand points with the closed fan toward the heart. 
• When may I see you?—touch the right eye with the closed fan. 
• I would like to be ever near you —fan the person in question with the open fan. 
• Be quiet; we are watched—hold the closed fan over the mouth. Dare I hope to win your love? —unfold the fan with a quick movement. 
• Do not be so cold —move the fan backward and forward with the right hand. 
• Do not be so jealous— rest the closed fan against the eyebrow of the right eye. 
• You may kiss me— press the half-open fan on the mouth. 
• Yes —rest the open fan upon the right cheek. 
• No —rest the open fan against the left cheek. 
• You are the darling of my heart—press the open fan against the heart and mouth. 
• Explain yourself clearly — look earnestly at the closed fan. 
• I give my consent—slowly close the fan. 
• Why do you wish to leave me?—fan violently with the half-open fan.

                        — The Los Angeles Herald, 1874

Maura Graber has been teaching etiquette to children, teens and adults, and training new etiquette instructors, for 34 years, as founder and director of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette.  She is also a writer, has been featured in countless newspapers, magazines and television shows and was an on-air contributor to PBS in Southern California for 14 years. She has been consulting as an etiquette authority for the HBO/MAX, Julian Fellowes’ drama, “The Gilded Age.”  Her books, “Reaching for the Right Fork” and “What Have We Here?” are available on Amazon.

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

Etiquette at Gilded Age Receptions and Balls

Ladies and gentlemen both wore gloves on the dance floor; flesh never touched flesh. Kid gloves were supposed to fit so tightly that the outline of the fingernails was visible; they lasted for only one wearing. Fans were essential for more than flirtation, as crowded ballrooms often got very hot. 

– From “To Marry an English Lord”, Photo source, Pinterest

The most brilliant private reception of the season was given last night. The great party consisted of the youth, beauty, tone, and culture of Omaha. The Musical Union Orchestra furnished the music, and the light-toed graces skipped by the hour in easy curves over the smooth floor. 

Wit sparkled in the twinkling eyes of purity, and young men who had “gathered polish” if not as much “moss” as their masculine elders, were favored by pre-emption early in the evening, and cultivated until the separating time. To the more advanced in years, though scarcely less attractive ladies, the men of heavier build attended with many expressions of proper etiquette, suavely given. 

All were in full dress, and a diamond here and there from a starched bosom or dainty ear struck into the onlooking eyes its electric rays in sparkling offset to the animated groups of harmony and beauty. The supper was all that dainty or hearty man or maid might wish to hold appetite against, and to it and to entertaining talk, the hostess and guests gave attention with Omaha gusto. – Omaha Herald, 1887

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

Etiquette and the “Napkin Burrito”

 

Gloves, once removed, had to join evening bag, fan, and large damask napkin, all precariously balanced on a slippery, possibly satin-sheathed lap. Emily Post suggested rather daringly (‘this ought not to be put in a book of etiquette, which should say you must do nothing of the kind’) that one might cover all these objects with the napkin placed cornerwise across the knees ‘and tuck the two side corners under like a lap robe, with the gloves and the fan tied in place, as it were.’” Basically, what she described results in a “burrito” of sorts.

“Creating what I call the ‘napkin burrito’...

“Gilded Age fashion for women dictated every little detail. And when it came to dressing for formal, Gilded Age dinners, bare shoulders for women with covered arms, was the reigning style. Very long, elbow-length, buttoned gloves were the fashionable evening choice, even though the gloves would have to be removed prior to eating one morsel of food. 

These long, multi-buttoned, gloves proved quite difficult to remove gracefully for many women. So difficult, that manufacturers designed gloves that could be rolled back upon the top of the hands in a ‘tacky’ effect, leaving the fingers sticking out from below. It gave a gluttonous appearance of someone in such a hurry to dine, that she just couldn’t be bothered to do what other female members of the dinner party had done — unbuttoned the gloves and removed them completely.

According to Margaret Visser in her book with The Rituals of Dinner, ‘The etiquette manuals were never very sure whether they approved of this labour saving device; Emily Post pronounced it ‘hideous.’ Gloves, once removed, had to join evening bag, fan, and large damask napkin, all precariously balanced on a slippery, possibly satin-sheathed lap. Emily Post suggested rather daringly (‘this ought not to be put in a book of etiquette, which should say you must do nothing of the kind’) that one might cover all these objects with the napkin placed cornerwise across the knees ‘and tuck the two side corners under like a lap robe, with the gloves and the fan tied in place, as it were.’ She went further, since one could no longer count on receiving a very large napkin, and promoted the carrying of paper clips, by gentlemen as well as ladies, to hold the napkin in place. All this assumes that a civilized diner would never require any dabbing at the lips with a napkin during dinner.’

“Basically, what she described results in a ‘burrito’ of sorts. – From Maura J. Graber’s book, “What Have We Here? The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...”, 2021

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

Gilded Age Etiquette of Gloves and Fans

Etiquipedia has not found any other resource stating that women wore gloves when “taking tea” but it is possible the authors actually meant a literal definition of ‘taking the tea,’ and that the gloves were removed prior to ‘drinking’ said tea. Then again, the author may not take into consideration that history was littered with people exhibiting bad manners, just as they do today. This is just one example... Why bother removing one’s gloves for dinner, when one can just unbutton them at the wrists, tuck the ‘fingers’ under, and shove them back as the blithely unthinking character Michelle Pfeiffer played in the film, ‘Age of Innocence’ did? Plenty of women were said to have ignored the etiquette of the day, and used this method to get to their food more quickly at social events and suppers. It remains tacky, gauche and totally incorrect!

Women wore long, over-the-elbow gloves, for dinners. These were taken off at the dinner table and kept in one's lap while one ate. It was not easy taking off a tight fitting set of gloves and keeping them on one's lap when wearing a slick silk dress. 

Etiquette books warned against leaving the gloves on, and just folding back the portion that covered the hand. So this must have been a common expediency. 

A common sight at the end of dinner, when the women were ready to withdraw, was men down on their hands and knees picking up the gloves and fans that had fallen to the floor during the dinner.

When one took tea, one wore gloves, but one took off gloves to eat at that same tea. Women put on gloves to shake hands while men would remove their right glove to perform this honor.  A hostess would never wear gloves. — From Forgotten Elegance, 2001

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, 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 

Broken Etiquette Gave Us Fans

Secret fan codes and fan languages never really existed in the etiquette books of old. They were created in the latter Victorian Era as a clever marketing device to increase the sale of fans. The promotion of the fictional language and codes worked, and sales of fans briefly increased.

The Origin of Fans

Fans are the cheapest luxury of the day. The Chinese have given us an article, well made of bamboo and embellished paper, that may be had for two nickels. When the cost of importation is considered, the pay of labor in China is apparent. 

Fans are said to have originated in China 3,000 years ago. At a feast of lanterns the lovely Kansi found the heat so oppressive that, contrary to all etiquette, she took off her mask. Partly to hide ber blushes, and partly to cool her heated face, she agitated the mask before her nose. The thing became epidemic. Ten thousand hands at once held ten thousand masks, and fanning became a fact. 

The fan was used as a standard in war, and in peace the fan assisted tbe priests in the temple, both to raising a cooling breeze and to guard the stored offerings from the contamination of noxious insects. In Egypt the fan of the priest of Isis was made of feathers of different lengths, spread out in the form of a semicircle, but pointed at tbe top. It was waved by a female slave. Amoug the Romans, slaves cooled the room and kept away the flies during meal time with fans. 

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.— Los Angeles Herald, 1878

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