This ivory fan is an excellent example of a brisé fan where the intricacy and delicacy of the pierced and carved design is decoration enough, ie no painted or applied decoration is needed.
Whereas most brisé fans have sticks that are identically pierced, this fan has at least seven distinct stick designs, each working together to form a pattern that imitates lace. The lower portion of the sticks and guards are clearly pierced, but the rest of the design is very finely carved with a pattern of grape leaves and bunches of grapes.
As you can see in this much enlarged detail, the carving, which would have been done by hand, is rather spectacular. This level of workmanship would have made this a very special, and likely very expensive, fan.
The fan sticks are threaded with an ivory-colored silk ribbon, and held together at the base with a rivet of black-spot paste. The original pasteboard box survives.
