A handle for a fan, flattened, carved in low relief with flowers and leaves, light grey nephrite jade, Punjab, 19th century

A handle for a fan, fashioned in one piece in light grey nephrite jade and lightly polished. It has a flattened, elongated oval cross-section and is of equal width for most of its length before briefly widening then narrowing to a waist just behind the pear-shaped head. There is a deep slot cut across the full width of the head and it is widest at the tip then gently narrows towards the back where it ends abruptly, a short distance from the waist. At the far end there is a flattened terminal with a waisted connection to the shaft.
The terminal has been carved in low relief as a flower bud and the shaft has been carved with flowers and leaves. The head has been carved with an undulating, slotted edge and with the two faces bearing the same design of scrolls surrounding a pear-shaped centre which contains two scrolls and an oval with a hatched design.
The terminal has a small hole drilled across its width and the head has a small hole drilled through both faces, perpendicular to the surface and just outside the border of the central pear-shaped design. There is also a short, blind hole drilled down the length of the shaft, from the bottom of the slot in the head.

Dr. W. L. Hildburgh Bequest

This fan handle was bequeathed to The Victoria & Albert Museum in 1956 by Dr. W. L. Hildburgh.

This fan handle has been well-fashioned from a single piece of nephrite jade, which is a hard and durable material that requires patience and skill to work. Although it is a hard material, when it has been worked to give fine edges or thicknesses, it can be prone to damage by sharp impacts. Objects such as this, fashioned from nephrite, would have been destined for person of some means, and given its function may have been for a Western patron living in the Punjab, where it was made in the 19th century.

IS.37-1956