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Stipple engraved paper fan (approx. 24 x 46 cm when opened) with seven illustrative ovals below the title, each separated with ornamental trophies depicting the paraphernalia of ageing, together with engraved text below and the maker's legend; some wear and old repairs chiefly to the verso; mounted on wooden staves. Schrieber Collection 157; see Rosanna, L. D. C. Harrison MA research A scholarly catalogue raisonné: George Wilson and the engraved fan leaf design, 1795-1801 University of York, 2012. A well delineated fan illustrating the progression from infancy to dotage accompanied by Jacques' soliloquy speech given in Act 2, Scene 7 of Shakespeare's As You Like It. The text, for the most part, is taken from the edition of Alexander Pope and George Steeven, some minor contractions including 'ye' for 'the' and 'wt' for 'with' etc., by the engraver. The first medallion, 'the infant', on the far left-hand side of the fan leaf depicts a young woman cuddling her young son and sitting on a chair in profile. 'The whining schoolboy' is an image of a young boy making his way to school; 'the lover' illustrates a young man holding a fashionable hat in his left hand whilst holding a letter in his right, which rests on a large table. 'A soldier' shows a man at the zenith of his life, both mentally and physically; he is clad in armour, holds a sword in his left hand and places his right hand firmly on his hip while looking out at the viewer; 'and then, the justice' records a man with a round belly who sits in a chair and is dressed in a rich costume. 'The sixth age' illustrates a more wizened man, bent over and carrying a sack over his shoulder. The 'last scene of all' features an old man sitting in his chair, now experiencing a 'second childhood' and supported by a young woman. Unusually, the fan was published by Sarah Ashton, who was admitted in 1770 to The Worshipful Company of Fan Makers when she carried on her late husband's business in Little Britain. She went on to publish at least 13 engraved fan designs. On the 26th June 1807, The Gentleman's Magazine reports her death: 'At Mrs. Fielde's, in John-street, Pentonville, after a long and painful illness, aged 69, Mrs. Sarah Ashton, late of Little Britain, wholesale, fan-maker. She was a woman whose memory ought to be preserved, as affording a most edifying pattern of piety, charity, patient sufferance, and almost peculiar gentleness and sweetness of mind and manners; whose death is severely felt by a large and highly respectable circle of mourning friends.' PLEASE NOTE: For customers within the UK this item is subject to VAT at 20%.
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