A final quarter 18th century Mother of Pearl fan, the monture silvered and gilded, the upper guards pierced and underlaid with cerise foil, the double leaf most probably fine vellum, the painting of a romantic pastoral scene undertaken in bold colours, the reserves filled with stylised cranes or storks, and Sphinx figures in the Grand Tour style, the verso painted with a bird of prey with outspread wings, guard approx. 10.75 inches or 27.5cm. Hall’s reference for the winged creature is “In classical Greece, (the sphinx) was given a woman’s head and breasts and wings, the form generally adopted in renaissance and later art”.