First Steps: An 18th Century Fan, circa 1740's-1750's, the ivory monture carved and painted in bright colours. The guards have the addition of portraits in gilded ovals to the tips, a woman on the upper guard, a man on the lower guard. Both guards are carved with figures, cerise foil being visible beneath. The gorge sticks are shaped, with a discernible kink to the centre on some, these being painted with meandering flowers and foliage. Others have their details to the top border, where garden tools, a basket, and a dog chasing a deer are painted. A lower spray of flowers in several colours is tied in blue ribbon with a bow. The double paper leaf makes a feature of blue, mainly in the skies, and in the outline of three vignettes. The largest of these, to the centre, shows a family outside a modest home, one man fishing on the river bank. Two others are playing a game of skittles, these being cone shape and testing the ability of a man to the left who is kneeling ready to take his shot. A maid is drawing water from a well, and to the fore a young mother, dressed in pink, proudly supports a small child in a harness, tentatively taking its first steps. The side vignettes are simple, being painted with a single figure outdoors, under a vast blue sky. The verso has a large landscape, painted mainly in blue, with some shrubbery, a lone man walking next to water. Guard length 27cm