The leaf of this fan is worked in fine point de gaze needle lace, in cotton. The mesh ground is denser and ‘cloudier’ here than in nineteenth-century examples. The design of the leaf reflects the then current art nouveau fashion for asymmetry and stylised rather than naturalistic forms. Only the jewelled monogram of the donors on the guards retains the formality of earlier fans.

The fan was presented to Queen Mary by King Albert I (1875-1934) and Queen Elisabeth (1876-1965) of the Belgians in the course of their State Visit to London in 1921. As Prince Albert of Belgium, the King had been one of the guests at Queen Mary’s wedding in 1893. From the start of the Belgian monarchy, the bond between England and Belgium was strengthened by family ties: King Leopold I (grandfather of Albert I) was the uncle of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and it had been his wife - born Princesse Louise d’Orléans - who had purchased fans in Paris for the young Queen Victoria in the late 1830s. There was a close bond of friendship between the two royal families and the 1921 State Visit to London, three years after the end of the First World War, was followed by a return visit to Belgium in May 1922, much enjoyed by Queen Mary. In the course of her stay in Brussels, Queen Mary purchased several pieces of modern Brussels lace.

Text adapted from Unfolding Pictures: Fans in the Royal Collection 2005