silk folding fans with hand-painted West Lake beauty

Folding fan is composed of fan-cover and fan-head. The earliest folding fans as the articles of tribute were introduced into China by Japanese monks in the Northern Song Dynasty. Thanks to growing favor towards the painting among imperial families, folding fans later became objects of art of distinctive features when painters and calligraphers began to decorate them with their works, whereas, round fans, though still in use in the Ming and Qing dynasties and afterwards, where then far less popular than folding ones. Big Folding Fan made in reign of Emperor Xuande and the picture Angling in a Boat under Waterside Trees by Xie Jin are only fan-covers now existent, and the earliest and rarest of all works of the kind handed down to the present.

The peculiarity of the shape of a folding fan determines the special style of paintings and calligraphic works that go on it, whether in composition or in spirit. Some fan-covers are even coated with powdered gold. Precious materials, like Wumu, sandalwood and ivory are used to made fan-head. Moreover, gold and jade sometimes become fan-pendant so as to show the owner's dignity. Meanwhile, traditional techniques including polishing, lacquering, carving and inlaying, are widely adopted to make the fans more exquisite.