Fan owned by ballerina MarieTaglioni (1804-1884).

Fan with with pierced ivory sticks, the hinge set with mother-of-pearl beads, the leaf of pale blue chiffon decorated with gold sequins and painted floral design,

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

An associated note in Margaret Rolfe's writing states: "These two fans were used by Marie Taglioni in her dancing class. I gave the mauve one to Pavlova." The manipulation of the fan would have been an integral part of teaching social dance in the 1870s when Taglioni was teaching in London.
One of several fans in the Cyril Beaumont Collection owned by Marie Taglioni and part of a unique collection of memorabilia and personal effects which evoke Marie Taglioni in the last decades of her life.
A collection of Taglioni memorabilia was amassed by Margaret Rolfe, the granddaughter of Taglioni's closest friend in London, Mrs Boggs Rolfe; she attended Taglioni's dancing classes and received many gifts of Taglioni memorabilia, from Taglioni herself, from her grandmother and from Taglioni's niece, Marguerite Troubetzkoi, after Taglioni's death. These she passed to Cyril Beaumont, probably for the London Archives of the Dance (a number of the objects were referred to in "The London Archives of the Dance and some of its Treasures" by Cyril Beaumont, Ballet Annual, first issue, Adam & Charles Black, London, 1947, p110); the Archives never achieved an independent home and part of the collection, including the Taglioni memorabilia, was stored with Cyril Beaumont, where it became inextricably mixed with his own collection and came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest.

S.7-1987