For
Show and Tell Friday
Hosted at
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This is an antique hand fan which is just one of the many fans in my late mother's hand fan collection. She collected them over many years and gave talks and showings at local schools, groups and Fairs in the several locations she lived in Ontario and British Columbia.
This fan is my favorite; it is not fancy nor frilly, but it is to me
never the less ... a real true gem .
An antique wooden autograph souvenir hand fan. The autographs are from 1870 done by passengers traveling on the S.S. Abyssinia during late October and early November 1870.
The writing was mostly with pen, but one or two were with pencil; some are bible verses other are poems, some just comments of the voyage underway. I had to use a loupe to read some of them, as over time they have faded and to, the writing was so fine so as to fit it all in, in the limited space.
The paddles are adorned with a lovely deep purple silk ribbon which is woven through the top part of the paddles keeping them together, alas though, over time, the silk ribbon has been damaged, but ... thankfully it at least it still remains.
The end paddles are plain, but the inner paddles, written on, have a carved/whittled design. In all my years of antiquing I have never seen another quite like this.
It has been great fun researcing this, and I hope you find the links below interesting reads ...
Taken from Wikipedia, to view
Click HERE "The S.S.Abyssinia (1870) was a British mail liner originally operated by the Cunard Line on the Liverpool -New York route. It carried 200 first class passengers and 1050 stearage.
According to the Mersysidehe Marine Musum at the Liverpool Museums 'Abyssinia' and her sister, 'Algeria' were both built for Cunard by J and G Thomson of Glasgow. They were the first Cunard liners to have straight, slightly raking stems or bows, as opposed to the clipper bows of their predecessors. They were also the first to have bathrooms, one on each side." to view
Click HERE
A great read is at the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives where the Cunard ships are mentioned in this marvalous detail article "The Ocean Steamer" Crossing the Atlantic in Early Steamships - 1870 taken from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, August, 1870. Volume XLI. Number 242 Pages 185 - 198. 14 pages along with 11 exquisite engravings all of which you can view
Click Here
I hope you enjoyed this post; until next time ... I wish you good health and happiness.
