A bit of history…

 

The origin of the fan goes back to antiquity.

In Egypt.

The pharaoh was protected from flies by a hand-fan made of feathers or leaves waved by a courtier called a “flabelliferous”. Two hand-fans made of ostrich feathers and ivory handles were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. They were placed there in order to give breath to the deceased.

In China.

The hand-fan tradition is thousands of years old, dating back to the time of Emperor Hsien Yuan, around 2697 BC. These were fixed. It was only in the 7th century, in Japan, that the folding fan was invented by a craftsman while watching the wings of a bat unfold.

In Europe.

From 1540 onwards, the Portuguese, returning from Japan, spread the hand-fan to Europe from the wholesale market in Lisbon. Italy immediately adopted this new hand-fan shape. Catherine de Médicis brought Italian hand-fans into fashion at the French court, which had already been known since the campaign of Louis XII. They were made and sold by her perfumers.

In 1760, Martin Petit invented a pleating mould system that facilitated mass production.

The 18th century: the golden age of the fan.

The era of the hand-fan’s splendour was undoubtedly the 18th century. Having become an important item in the previous century, it was used not only by noble and middle-class ladies, but also by women of more modest status. By becoming a fashion accessory, the hand-fan took on a new dimension. It was adorned with different subjects and became a real art object.

The wind has died down.

It fell into disuse during the inter-war period, except as an advertising object and also in a few countries such as Spain, where production had been established less than a century earlier.

To day.

In 2005, Véra Pilo created the first French hand-fan brand that boldly revisits this elegant and ecological way of dealing with global warming. Her iconoclastic and contemporary hand-fans give a new light to this object and make it accessible to the greatest number of people.

Today it is enjoying a revival and, having left the courts of the kings of France, is once again a fashion accessory in its own right

Whoopi Goldberg
a big fan of Vera Pilo !

 

Hello, I’m the private secretary
of Mrs. Whoopi Goldberg, is this
at Vera Pilo’s house ?
A phone call from New York like that
in the morning, it’s a good start to the day…
a Baroquito hand-fan for Whoopi ?
no problem!

P.S. If we could get an autographed photo
that would be great. Thanks….
And here it is !!!

Van Gogh exhibition in Italy
in Vincenza.

 

Vincent Van Gogh painted “Road with a cypress tree
and starry sky” in Saint-Rémy de Provence in 1889.
It is one of the many studies that the painter
made on cypresses and stars, and which
prefigures the famous painting “Starry Night”.
It is on loan from the Rijksmuseum Kröller Müller
for the Van Gogh exhibition to be held in
Vincenza in Italy.
It is for this occasion that Vera Pilo has made
this hand-fan so that each visitor can take a piece of this
to take a piece of this masterpiece with them.

2021, new hand-fans
for the Musée de la Compagnie
of the Indies.

 

We look forward to the reopening of our museums
of our museums to meet again in Lorient.
The unique theme of the Museum of the
of the Compagnie des Indes brings to life for the visitor
the extraordinary history of the great trading companies
of the great trading companies of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Models of ships, prints, old maps
Indo-European furniture, Chinese porcelain
porcelain, Indian cotton fabrics are all testimonies
of this incredible maritime epic.
A well of inspiration to create magnificent
fans on the theme of travel.
The summer of 2019 gave birth to the models
Palempore aux Paons, Vue de Lorient and Les
Birds of China. This year two new
two new Véra Pilo hand-fan creations will be on sale
in the shop: the Arbre de vie fan and the Pondichery
the Pondichery hand-fan.
A journey for each of your summer days !