Collecting Antique Hand Held Fans

I have always been interested in antiques. A few year's ago I decided that I wanted to start collecting some kind of antique. I was looking for something that was cheap to buy, and also decorative to look at. After much deliberation, as there is a lot to choose from, I thought antique hand hand held fans were the perfect collectors item for me.

I had a look on Ebay.com where there was a number of different antique hand held fans to choose from. My collection has been slow, I have only accumulated around ten of them over the past few year's. The fans that I have collected though are unique, and they look very decorative, which was the aim of my collection. I have some with floral designs, some oriental designs, and some very elaborate Spanish designs. I bought these for $5 - $10 for each fan.

Hand held fans have been in existence for hundreds of years, and are still commonly used in many parts of the world today. They have been used in the past as an ornamental piece or a fashion statement. They have been made from many different materials with all kinds of artwork displayed on the fan shaped or flat surfaces. Some of the most earliest fans came from the Egyptians, and were of a palm leaf design. Plumage of birds were a favorite art design on Egyptian and Native American Indian ceremonial fans. Bird feathers were also used as a material to make the fans. In Rome, Italy it was common for fans to be made of wood and elaborately painted.

The earliest Chinese fans were made from bamboo. They dated from the 2nd century BC. The Chinese fans were used as a status symbol, with specific fans being given to a particular individual, or group of people. The slats of fans made in China were made from sandalwood, mother of pearl, bone, mica, Ivory, or tortoise shell. These materials were carved and covered with paper or some type of fabric.

Craftsmen started being very artistic in the design of fans in the 18th century. Fans started being popular during this time throughout Europe. Parchment, lace and silk were popular materials used for fan making in Europe during this period of time. Mechanical fans were popular in the 1700's, they were of a similar design to that of a wind up clock. Fans were also known to be used for communication purposes in the form of a secret code or message. Depending on how the fan was waved or positioned would determine the type of message being sent by the use of the fan. This was actually a way of marketing the sales of fans that began in the 1800's. Nowadays, this is sill a significant advertisement for hand held fans, with the promotion of the "language" of the fan. A fan maker in London, England recently used this method for sales purposes, advertising different styles of fans with various slogans attached to them.