The National Progress fan was commissioned by the Queen after the Prince Consort’s death, but commemorates an event in August 1850. Its subject is Prince Albert’s speech at the laying of the foundation stone of the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh in August 1850. In a rousing panegyric on the place of the arts in daily life, the Prince had praised the circumstances of the new foundation as ‘the picture of a most healthy national progress’. Passages from the speech are inscribed on the fan, along with other phrases indicating the Prince’s interests, among them the ‘education of women’, a phrase which would also have appealed to the designer of the fan, Marianne, Viscountess Alford. The front leaf bears an allegory of the Prince’s speech, showing Art personified on the left and Science on the right, both pointing towards the central building, described by Lady Alford as a ‘Temple of Instruction’.

Lady Alford was a keen and talented artist, and one of the founders of the Royal School of Needlework. Her initial design was framed and hung at Osborne. The fan was made up and signed by Alfred Jorel, a craftsman who worked for Duvelleroy, the Paris and London firm that frequently supplied the Queen. The presentation box bearing their label also survives in the Royal Collection.

Inscribed Jonel. Spsit(for Jorel)

Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010