A Rare French Fan, circa 1890's, the ivory monture shaped like a dagger or sword hilt. The head, intricately carved and shaped and set with an opaque stone, the gorge and lower guards shaped only at the shoulder, but the upper part of the guards carved to catch the eye with a bulbous section carved in layers, more detail to tip and junction, with a column-like and elegant section culminating in a pipe-playing cherub carved in relief, atop a pedestal. A closer look at this shape shows that the fan is made to emulate a dagger, with the bulbous part the handle. The lower guard matches, save for the cherub playing a different instrument.
The silk leaf, mounted à l'anglaise, is painted in pastel colours with an amusing scene of "Marionettes de l'Amour", a puppet theatre with three puppets on the "stage", plus a white cat perched on a red velvet cushion. The "audience" consists of six rather chubby winged cherubs, one having sneaked under the curtain of the theatre, one pointing at a puppet as if a teacher pointing at a blackboard, the others taking it all in, one to the left with his tongue protruding. Signed, under the cherubs to the left, Aman Cyboulle, a French artist who exhibited at The Salon 1868-1880. The recto is completed with a simple border to the edges and some details in the corners. The verso is plain save for some detail to the corners and simple flower sprays. Contained in a card fan box covered in cerise silk and inscribed in gold for Duvelleroy Regent Street W.
Guard length 11 inches or 28cm

See a similar fan, painted by a different artist but with the same monture, sold in the "Earth to Fire" sale at Sotheby's London in May 1st 2018, lot 307. Estimated at £600 to £700 it achieved £1500.00 hammer.