Sat Nov 5, 2022 07:25 PM

Leather and bone folding fan held by the UK’s Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 25350, dated at about 1600. https://www.rct.uk/collection/25350/fan-from-the-stuart-collection

There are still visible pin pricks where the paper pattern was transferred to the leather before being cut out with a knife. The write up on the item suggests that it is probably dogskin. That confused me a bit, but the term was usually used to designate a thick sheepskin leather used to make hunting and hawking gloves. There’s an interesting article on 16-17th leather by Mike Redwood, a leather chemist and visiting professor at the University of Northampton that talks about the terms used for leathers. https://www.mikeredwood.com/the-leather-in-the-16th-and-17th-century-gloves/

Some of the patterns down the the leaf seem to have been taken from _Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne_ by Cesare Vecellio https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/347996