I found this and two other antique hand fans together, and might guess they were all once part of Miss Fanny Allen's collection, to whom this hand-painted one, Japanese I believe, was gifted in 1872 (handwritten in ink along the far left edge.) I really like its elegant simplicity, with one gold square painted with a bird and flower, and one silver with deep blue lilies and green stalks. The reverse is plain, the sticks/ribs are bamboo, and it holds sturdily open, so would be pretty just propped somewhere.
15" span when open, measured corner to corner. Closed it measures 9 1/2" t x 5/8" wide and deep. Holding the sticks together at the bottom is a green wire loop, which I am sure replaced the original the rivet or metal loop, but which works just fine. There is a bit of paint lots and a bit of minor tearing, but overall very good condition, and lovely.
