An attractive but optional accessory in the middle of the nineteenth century, fans such as this had become by the last decades of that century an essential part of a fashionable wardrobe, and were made in a great range of shapes, sizes, materials and styles. The huge sleeves and flamboyant flowing lines of late nineteenth century fashionable dress were ideally matched by large dramatic fans. Ostrich feathers had become fashionable in the late eighteenth century, so much so that the species may have become extinct had it not been discovered in the 1830's that they could be successfully farmed. The sticks of this fan are made of tortoise shell, a material which was highly prized in the nineteenth century because of its beautiful appearance and durability. The tortoise shell usually came from the hawksbill turtle, which is now an endangered species. The shell was softened in boiling salted water before being moulded in heated dies.