Fan, bamboo and paper with lacquer and mother of pearl inlay, China, 1904

A twenty-nine-rib folding paper fan, the inner ribs left in the natural state, the outer pair lacquered and decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay. One side decorated with butterflies and flowers in colours on paper treated with mica to a gold finish. The reverse carries a long printed text, a series of 108 quatrains, seven characters to the line, on characters from the 18th century novel Hong Lou Meng .

Those on the hero and heroine – Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu – are in the upper right-hand corner. The paper of the reverse is also lightly treated with mica. The colophon reads: “In the middle months of the summer in the year jia chen of the Guangxu period, I happened to record the ‘Hundred poems on Beauty’ at the Er Shi Si Fan Hua Xin Feng Zhai in Shenpu.” Jia chen is equivalent to 1904. On the extreme right fold a semi-legible shop-mark including the words Jin Run Tang .