Swan Feather Fan with Odd Patent

[talesofthesevenseas]

After much searching, I finally found a perfect antique fan to go with my striped Civil War dress. It's made of what the seller believes are swan's down feathers glued down and then embroidered with roses. The staves (sticks) are made of bone. My question is about the patent. Carved into the guard is "PATENT V.O." Would this be a Roman numeral 50 or something else?

Front of fan:



Back of fan:



Patent marking:



Here's the dress it is going with: 

[JoshandLila]

not Roman numerals I dont think.. any chance the "v" used to be an "N"? might be a city like New Orleans or something

[wendy177]

Beautiful tales! Maybe it is N.O. for #     This is off topic but while searching for info on your fan I came across some info on dating parasols

Early Victorian parasols were very small and the lengths increased steadily as time went on. Making parasols easy to date with the aid of a tape measure.
Length of parasol from tip of ferrule to bottom of handle

22 to 28 inches                1835-1865
25 to 30 inches                1865-1885
36 to 40 inches                1885-1899
40 to 42 inches                after 1900

[talesofthesevenseas]

That is entirely possible that the V is an N, considering that bits of the other letters have worn away, and also that the left side seems to angle a bit. I don't have it in hand yet, I just won the auction on it, but I will see if I can see anything more. N.O. would make more sense than Roman numerals, particularly with the periods after them makes it seem more like letters.

[KC]

The piece is in great shape!!!!  Nice find Talesof!!!

Don't know if you have ever seen anything about the language of fans...this article is pretty good about explaining it.  Very interesting all that people would go through to communicate other than speaking!!!  "FANS: THEIR HISTORY AND SECRET LANGUAGE REVEALED"
http://www.kathleencoddington.com/TALKING_FANS.html

[talesofthesevenseas]

That's actually a bit controversial, but fun to read. This bit is out of Wikipedia:

It has been said that in the courts of England, Spain and elsewhere fans were used in a more or less secret, unspoken code of messages[12] These fan languages were a way to cope with the restricting social etiquette. However, modern research has proved that this was a marketing ploy developed in the 18th century (FANA Journal, spring 2004, Fact & Fiction about the language of the fan by J.P. Ryan) - one that has kept its appeal remarkably over the succeeding centuries. This is now used for marketing by fan makers like Cussons & Sons & Co. Ltd who produced a series of advertisements in 1954 showing "the language of the fan" with fans supplied by the well known French fan maker Duvelleroy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_fan

Here is the info on Duvelleroy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duvelleroy

Kathleen Coddington is a romance novel writer and it looks like her research is based on the information which appears to have been produced as a marketing tool. As I understand it, the messages conveyed were a bit more subtle, more like making eyes at a person from across the room and much less structured and formal, than something along the lines of sign language, as Coddington's article suggests.

But there were some fans that had things like little mirrors, which a lady could use to catch the sun and shine into the eyes of a gentleman whose attention she wanted to capture! Here is one of these fans:

[fancypants]

Nice item , talesof !

I've seen mirrored antique fans before , none so ornate as the one you posted ... I support the view that they were sometimes used as an 'earlier-times' cordless IM device !

[KC]

I saw the mirrored ones before and my elder relations said it was ALSO to view if someone was coming up from behind (much like women would later use the powder compacts for).  I knew there was a mini language with fans (not to the extent that article touted - but it did hit on some high points!

Also, know the type of feathers and rarity of birds helped in societal rank as well as whether ivory, rare woods, etc.

[talesofthesevenseas]

The fan arrived this morning and wow, it's a beauty! I've solved the mystery of "Patent V.O." it was actually a very worn "Patent Pending".