Today was my yearly trip to the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale and I was in luck because someone had clearly donated a fan collection. The fans were spread out in 3 locations, Accessories, Sewing and Fine Art.
While I did purchase a couple of nice fans in Accessories the best one came from Sewing. This fan was labeled as celluloid and has some condition issues including missing parts of the blade and a break on one of the handles. Still, pierced cockade fans are fairly rare and I usually will buy an unusual fan even if it has condition issues.
When I got home I looked through my fan references and discovered that this was an interesting Novelty Fan. It is hard rubber, not celluloid, and manufactured by the Goodyear company in Lambertville, NJ.
In Novelty Hand Fans, Cynthia Fendel suggests that these fans were probably made between the 1860s and 1872, when the patent expired.
Hi there! Your fan wasn't made by Goodyear, but FOR Goodyear, by the Lambertville Rubber Company around the 1850s. The Cooper-Hewitt also has one of these! I currently live in a converted loft in what used to be the Lambertville Rubber Company along the beautiful Delaware and collect all things Lambertville Rubber. If you're ever interested in selling your fan, let me know!
ReplyDeleteHi! That’s super neat, and interesting to find out that it was made by Lambertville Rubber. What’s an interesting thing that you have in your collection?
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