French Hand Fan

From France, a gorgeous natural and dyed palm leaf fan with a bamboo trunk handle. 

First used as practical tools for cooling and fanning flames, hand fans soon became exquisite objects of art, fashioned from ivory, silk, tortoiseshell, lace, and mother-of-pearl. In Japan, folding fans were used in dance and ceremony; in Europe, they became fashionable accessories for ladies of leisure, fluttered to send flirtatious glances or concealed smiles behind painted scenes of pastoral delight.

The most gorgeous of ways to keep cool!