Fan with Hand-Colored Bucolic Lithograph of Three Pretty Ladies Flirting with a Young Man

NA. Very Good. N.d, circa 1840. The fan is 23.5 cm tall, and when spread out with its 18 spokes, spans 43 cm wide. The paper uses has a thick texture similar to antique wall paper of the Biedermeier Period. The scene contained in the lozenge oval lozenge inset is a pastoral scene of three young women of the period flirting with a dashing young man in breeches. Surrounding them are sheep. The ladies seem perhaps too well appointed to be more than playacting at being shepherdesses, but clearly the man is high born and not a peasant. The floral ornamentation surrounding the picture is in a folk art simple style, again such as one might find as a repeat on a wallpaper. The paper on the fan has general wear, with some minor tearing along the edges. Overall the fan is an attractive antique.