The precise origins of hand-held fans remain obscure, but pictorial and archaeological evidence testifies to their existence for over 3,000 years. The Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was buried with eight fans c1300 BC and fans are believed to have been used by the Ancient Greeks, Etruscans and Romans as both cooling and ceremonial devices. Early versions were all fixed fans comprising a wand or stick and attachment of feathers, parchment, straw/reeds or various textiles, for agitating and cooling the air and deterring flies. Folding fans appeared much later and were reportedly introduced into the west through merchant traders and religious orders who had colonised areas of China and Japan.

Ornamental fans appeared in Britain at the court of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and, as expensive imported novelties fashioned from luxury materials, were essentially elite status symbols. During the early 1600s folding fans superseded fixed fans, the sticks often of bone or ivory and the fan ‘leaf’ typically of vellum and paper, artistically painted with mythological and biblical scenes. From 1685 the influx of Huguenot refugees fuelled British fan manufacturing and the London trade was sufficiently advanced by 1709 for the establishment of the Fan Makers’ Company. Both imported and home-manufactured fans were popular in Georgian Britain, becoming progressively more affordable, extending the vogue further down through society. As desirable daytime accessories, for much of the century fans were richly decorated, but by the 1790s, expressing neoclassical taste, simpler fans of muted shades and plainer designs were preferred, growing more prominent again during the 1820s and 1830s.

Fans were an important feature of Victorian dress and, reflecting the spirit of the age, there were many innovations and improvements in fan design and manufacture. Diverse materials and themes included printed paper fans commemorating national events, and exquisite fans of tortoiseshell, pearl and lace for formal occasions. Natural bone or pearl sticks and guards could be stained in different hues and were sometimes elaborately carved or pierced. By the 1880s and 1890s large fans were fashioned increasingly from silk, gauze, beads, even mounted insects and tiny stuffed hummingbirds, and reserved for evening wear. During the early 1900s fans remained de rigueur in polite society and in the 1920s were much admired, from cheap paper souvenir fans given out in hotels and restaurants, to striking ostrich-feather fans complementing shimmering flapper dance frocks. Fans remained obligatory until the mid-20th century, along with long white gloves, a feathered headdress and trained gown, for presentation at Court.