Fan owned by ballerina Marie Taglioni (1804-1884), sticks and guards of pierced bone inlaid with silver gilt foil; the paper leaf printed with colour lithographs highlighted with watercolour.

Fan owned by ballerina MarieTaglioni (1804-1884). Fan with sticks and guards of pierced bone inlaid with silver gilt foil; the paper leaf printed with colour lithographs of allegorical scenes highlighted with watercolour. The borders to each allegorical scene have been appliqued. The leaf edged with silver gilt foil.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

The fan came with associated notes in Margaret Rolfe's hand: "This fan belonged to La Camargo and then to Marie Taglioni Open very carefully It is very old and won't stand a thing. Margaret Rolfe." And "This fan belonged to La Camargo and afterwards to Marie Taglioni then to Margaret Rolfe." The celebrated dancer Camargo was born in 1710 and died in 1770, and the fan has been identified as mid 19th century, produced in France, possibly for the Spanish Market.
This is one of several fans in the Cyril Beaumont Collection owned by Marie Taglioni. part of a unique collection of memorabilia and personal effects which evoke the ballerina in the last decades of her life. The manipulation of the fan would have been an integral part of teaching social dance in the 1870s when Taglioni was teaching in London. 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. She kept these, with a series of related notes, in various boxes and annotated envelopes (filed separately). 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.254-1979