The Alchemist: A Circa 1700 or Perhaps Earlier, possibly Dutch, (looking at the seated man's hat) Slender Ivory Fan, painted in rich colours to the guards and gorge, with simple rural scenes and decorative designs highlighted in gold. The colourful double paper leaf shows an exterior scene, a man in black priest's robes and large hat, (a Jesuit?) reading from a book, in front of a table where objects, seemingly of metal, are being weighed on scales. To the left, a worker with a very large pestle and mortar. To the right, a worker sieves something into a black powder next to a metal apparatus over a flame, the latter being fanned with bellows by a man in Chinese robes, the final product flowing into black bottles through a tube. Turning base metal into gold? Making gunpowder, a bi-product of some Chinese experiments? The verso has a simple spray of painted flowers, in deep pink and yellows, roses and a tulip, with foliage. Guard length 25.5cm
Issue 92 of The Bulletin produced for members by the Fan Circle International carries an article, on pages 27 to 28, of an opinion on this fan by Mrs Hélène Alexander, MBE, FRSA, of the Fan Museum on Greenwich who viewed the fan during an exhibition of some of the collection in 2010