Folding fan with double leaf of paper, on which a round, cut-out stipple engraving depicting a seated woman surrounded by lovers, with a chinoiserie figurine wearing silk clothes on either side, on an openwork carved mount of bone

This fan is a European imitation of a Chinese type, which had developed in Canton in the course of the 18th century from a 17th-century South Chinese model. These Cantonese fans, sought after for the particularly large number of small figures with minutely painted faces on ivory, were called 'Hundred Faces' fans. In contrast to their Chinese models, the characters on the European imitations have not only a face but also an ivory neck. The clothing of the warrior and the woman is composed of glued-on pieces of satin and mother-of-pearl. The chinoiserie-like effect is emphasized by the exotic-looking environment in which these figures are placed. On the back of the leaf a symmetrically built, classicist ornament.