Achilles and the Daughters of Lycomedes: A Fine and Extravagant Mid-18th Century Ivory Fan, the monture silvered and gilded with fine and complex carving and piercing. The guards are each carved with a figure and bird, the remainder with flowers and foliage, these latter parts gilded. The slender gorge is worked in bands, carved and pierced and gilded save for the lower section. The upper band is pierced and carved with detailed and brightly gilded flowers and foliage, which alternate with flat panels painted in gold with more subtle trees and blossom and buildings in the chinoiserie style. Below, a broad band of fine carving and piercing in mainly interlinked circles which create a complex design full of movement. The rivet holds a red stone. A central scene shows Achilles, having cast aside the female disguise adopted when he first entered the house of Lycomedes and his daughters. He now stands before them whilst they go about daily duties, in this instance the laundry with a stone bath, as his true self. This and two further vignettes are within gilded frames, the vignette to the right showing a woman in pink robes kneeling to collect wild flowers for her tall and shaped basket, the painting to the left depicting two winged cherubs by water, in front of a basket filled with purple grapes. The reserves, in dark colours, are richly gilded and painted with flowers in strong blue and pink, leaves in gold. The verso depicts a lady seated in the countryside before water, habitation behind, the reserves painted with dainty sprays of pink berries and flowers. Guard length 28cm