From dealer's description: "Folding fan.) (Shakespeare.) Shakespears Seven Ages. (London:) Enter'd at Stationers Hall, by the Proprieter, March, 20 1796. (Folding paper fan, stipple-engraved in sepia with 7 oval medallions illustrating the seven ages of man (titled: Infant, Schoolboy, Lover, Soldier, Justice, Pantaloon, Second Childhood), alternate medallions with a neatly stitched border of gold sequins, the text in three columns beneath, within an ornate border; lightly toned, three old paper repairs on verso at head, two small tears to lower edge with very slight loss, strengthened on verso; mounted on wooden sticks, 250 mm (9.75 ins). A very scarce late eighteenth-century fan with illustrations depicting the seven ages of man above the corresponding soliloquy from As You Like It. This fan does not appear in Cust’s catalogue of the Schreiber collection, and Worldcat lists only one example of this design, at the Huntington. That example without the sequins - known in the eighteenth century as ‘spangles’ or ‘spangs’ - which here encircle the Schoolboy, the Soldier and the Pantaloon. These were likely added as a touch of personalisation by an early owner, and are expertly applied. As You Like It was a particular favourite at Drury Lane, where between 1776 and 1817 it was staged more often than any other Shakespearean play. The trope of the Seven Ages, from infancy to dotage, became correspondingly popular in print culture of which fans - a common and practical accessory for the theatrical attendee - were an obvious extension. Sarah Ashton (sometimes in collaboration with George Wilson) produced at least four fans on this theme (Cust, numbers 156-160), including the ‘Female Seven Ages’. The present production is distinct from these however, both in layout and in individual illustrations, which are unsigned. In addition to Cust, see: Rosanna Harrison, A Scholarly Catalogue Raisonné: George Wilson and the Engraved Fan Leaf Design, 1795-1801 (MA Thesis, University of York, 2012)." Ordered from Blackwell's Rare Books, D9761, 2024-08-19, email quote.
