The Judith Kennedy Collection of Fine Antique Fans

The Judith Kennedy Collection of Fine Antique Fans is to be sold in Tennants Auctioneers’ Fan Sale on Saturday 9^th March, featuring over 100 fans dating from the 18^th to the early 20^th century.

Judith Kennedy (1902-1986) came to fan collecting later in life but amassed in a short period a refined and well selected array of mainly 19^th century fans. Her earliest recorded purchases date to 1976, and she scoured antiques fairs, shops and the London salerooms from where she collected fans from across a broad range of countries and themes, attracted to pretty fans with spangles, lace and ostrich feathers. Many of Kennedy’s fan were exhibited at Fan Circle International exhibitions (of which she was an early member), including a display of Royal fans held at Harewood House near Leeds in 1986, which included several of the fans now for sale.

Highlights from the collection include a very fine and unusual Brussels lace fan, with gilded mother-of-pearl sticks (estimate: £1,200-2,000 plus buyer’s premium). The needlelace is of very fine quality and includes a coat of arms, said to be those of the Princesse Annie de Lusignan. A Grand Tour fan from the late 18^th century depicting Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum with a Chinese export monture, is offered with an estimate of £800-1,500 (plus buyer’s premium). The fan was once exhibited in the Brighton Art Gallery.

From the Far East is a circa 1840s Chinese carved tortoiseshell Brisé from the Qing Dynasty. Featuring carved scenes and the initials ‘MA’ the fan is offered with an estimate of £1,000-2,000 (plus buyer’s premium).

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