Folding fan with leaf painted in watercolour Vertumnus & Pomona, on a carved mount of mother-of-pearl with silver and gold leaf

Folding fan with leaf painted in watercolor depicting Vertumnus and Pomona, on a carved mount of mother-of-pearl, leaf silver, and leaf gold. 22 connected ribs, cut out and openwork. The parchment leaf is painted with watercolor. Ovidius (43 BC–18 AD) recounts in his 'Metamorphoses' (XIV:623-771) the countless forms the god Vertumnus had to assume before winning the nymph Pomona. Only after he had pleaded for love in the guise of an old woman and then assumed the form of a young man did Pomona become his. The front of the fan is a Bloemaert-like representation. On the back of the leaf, a shepherd and shepherdess are depicted in a Boucher-like scene. On the front of the leaf, a particularly finely painted ornamental border, with two mermaids in the left corner and a stag followed by a dog in the right corner, provides the transition between the scene and the mount. The mount is strikingly decorated with swirling ribbons, between which flowers and insects are placed in this case.