Entering Frederick YM Gay’s workshop in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) is like stepping into a cabinet of curiosities. The 50-year-old fine artist exhibits his paintings and sculptures but is better known for being one of the last craftsmen of traditional hand-held fans.
Gay was introduced to the world of hand fans during an internship at Anne Hoguet’s fan workshop in Paris’s tenth arrondissement. Hoguet is one of France’s most respected and last craftswomen in an industry that has seen wildly fluctuating interest and success since the 16th Century.
Gay sees immense artistic potential in an object that requires more than 40 different craft skills, but laments the image with which it is mostly associated nowadays.
“This craft suffers from a naff and outdated image which is – in the best case scenario – associated with the Spanish folk tradition, despite being one of the oldest jobs in the world.
Along with Great Britain, France enjoyed one of the most vibrant hand-fan industries,” said Mr Gay.
The Connexion’s interview revealed a man passionate about his craft, who helped to earn the industry France’s prestigious ‘intangible cultural heritage’ status in March 2020, and who regularly trains new apprentices. He also wants people to understand that hand fans have much more potential than modern battery-operated versions.
Frederick Gay
Where did your passion for hand fans originate?
I first graduated with a Baccalauréat in an artistic subject. I then went on to gain a Master’s degree in fashion and creation after completing clothing courses at the Ecole Arts appliqués where I graduated with honours.
It was during this period in my life that I was first introduced to the hand fan, although strangely enough I had no particular interest in it at first sight.
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However, I was intrigued that the fan acted as an extension of the body, and that it could be painted, decorated, and even sculpted. It was already a frontier object for me.
At the time, I was writing a thesis about how Adam and Eve were used to represent Man and Woman in both the lyrical and poetic arts. With the fan I had discovered an object that fit perfectly with what I wanted to work on.
Your studies made you realise that your qualifications could be put to good use to design fans. Tell us about their history.
In the early days of hand-fan production, the object was called a paravent de la pudeur (literally a ‘screen of modesty’) to be held over a lady’s private parts. The legend says it represents the very moment that human beings understood the difference between sexes, excluding them from Heaven and condemning them to mortality.
Frederick Gay
The two most common types of fans (folded and pleated) were crafted with a thick setting using paper for the fan’s upper side. This object was first attributed to Japanese makers around the fourth and the fifth Centuries B.C., and is believed to have been invented after watching bats move their wings. The Portuguese brought them from China and Japan during their conquering expeditions, then Catherine de’ Medici introduced them to Italian and French salons.
The fan became a ‘must have’ of the aristocracy, to the extent that glove and boot makers also wanted to make them, to cash in on the profits available from selling this luxury item. The growing industry’s popularity convinced Louis XIV and Colbert to create the corporation des tabletiers, luthiers et éventaillistes, a sort of corporate guild for fan makers.
The two trades co-existed both in Paris and Great Britain until the French Revolution in 1789 brought an end to the guild.
Was it not the same after the guild ceased to exist?
It is considered the first death of the hand fan. The 19th Century in particular saw a near-total end to production, since most craftspeople stopped making them and lost the necessary skills. Production evolved to meet the budgets of the bourgeoisie in an effort to expand its use.
Frederick Gay
France had to wait until the 1930s before éventaillistes were able to create hand fans for many different types of events such as weddings, funerals or birthdays. Hand fans were seen at operas and salons of the bourgeoisie. There was a burst of creativity during this early part of the 20th Century. The Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods are considered golden eras of the hand fans, with many of the items coming out of Boucher or Fragonard’s workshops.
How did it come to be regarded as a frivolous object?
The hand fan was used to rank women in the aristocracy’s court. Their design often concealed an erotic or seductive element based on the codes and symbols used in 18th-Century paintings. The paintings celebrated desire, femininity and often depicted wild sexual encounters. This saw fans develop into seductive objects.
You bring a fresh perspective to fan making and have trained many apprentices. Have you seen a revival within the industry?
New ideas have emerged over the last 20 years, after the art of fan making had almost disappeared. The hand fan has this theatrical and fun dimension that no one else has developed.
Frederick Gay
I am drawing and creating pieces that cost as little as 30 to 40 euros, to try to attract a new clientele, whereas I mostly design fans that cost from 70 euros up to between 500 and 3,000 euros for specific clients. Sometimes even more. But it is a time-consuming process.
The hand fan was the accessory of choice in weddings until the 19th Century, but was eventually replaced by flower bouquets to keep costs down. It is crazy to start a fan business nowadays!
How can lowering the entry price help to rejuvenate the market?
The idea is to have fun and accessible items. The 70 euro fan is a good product that I am selling reasonably here in Romans-sur-Isère, but I use these to attract and turn customers’ attention to other fans.
I am developing a two-sided opening fan, whereas convention dictates it is opened only from the right, with the fan having a hidden side. I remember selling more than 30 of them in less than 15 minutes the only time I designed them 25 years ago. Fans have many playful and creative qualities, something which should help them to be seen as contemporary objects.
How do you hope the industry will develop in the years to come?
There are two main aspects. I would hope that a strong institution celebrating French savoir-faire will be found again.
The hand fan industry must work on marrying a contemporary approach with national heritage. We need to think about hand fans as works of contemporary art.
Frederick Gay
The first recorded hand fans were used by men to magnify the spectrum’s celestial and terrestrial powers, unlike the big feather duster types as in Cecil B. DeMille’s movies. This is what attracted me to hand fans. I’m looking to revive that imagery, taking into account recent gender and identity questions, with a plan to introduce it into nightclubs in the US or the UK.
Hand fans can be designed to play on sound and lighting, or through embroidered messages as in during the 18th Century. I want to give the industry the aura it had before the Revolution, when people used their fans to convey secret messages and to display political or revolutionary slogans.
There is infinite potential. I think there’s enough space for two different markets: the Spanish, playing on global-warming issues, and something closer to club culture or the LGBT community.
I’m proud to have contributed to an industry that has enriched France’s intangible cultural heritage since March 2020. We had disappeared from French dictionaries in the 1960s.
I want to open a school in Monaco but I am waiting to see if it’s possible. Then I would consider myself to have accomplished enough for the industry.
