Fans of the Victorian Period Ephemera Sheets
These printable ephemera sheets are made up of illustrations from a series of Victorian trade cards entitled, “Fans of the Period.” Trade cards were a form of collectible advertising popular in the late 1800s.
At first, I didn’t think much about the fans. I thought they were pretty, and I was intrigued by the different designs, but something told me that there was more to these fans than met the eye. When I started researching the history of fans from the Victorian period, I learned there was a great deal more to them than just their flashy colors and plumage. It turns out that fans of that period were used as a tool for flirtation. In fact, there was an entire language carried out by the motions and movements of Victorian fans. Carrying the fan in the right hand in front of the face meant "follow me." Drawing the fan across the cheek meant "I love you," or twirling it in the right hand indicated that your heart was with another.
I feel like it’s difficult enough to communicate with actual words, let alone an inanimate object. The whole thing has me wondering how many misunderstandings happened due to mistranslated fan movements. I can’t even get my husband to remember where we keep the measuring spoons. There’s no way he would remember that if I closed my fan it meant that I wished to speak to him. He probably would have thought, “darn, she’s packing up her fan. Guess she must be leaving. Better find another girl to talk to.”
2” x 3”
Use these in art journaling, junk journaling, bullet journaling, collage, artist trading cards (ATCs), scrapbooking and other mixed media artwork.
1” x 2” Dominoes
1.5” Circles
You may also enjoy these free collage sheets.
Terms of use:
Free to use for personal or commercial projects. You may print the collage sheets as many times as you wish for your personal crafts or in your projects to sell, including: art journals, scrapbooks, junk journals, collage art, etc. You may not redistribute or sell the collage sheets “as is" in either print or digital form.
If you wish to share the files on your own website, please do not make the files available for download directly from your site. Instead, include an image with a link back to this site.
To the best of my knowledge, these are all royalty free images that are in the Public Domain in the US. However, you should always do your own research if you plan to use them commercially.
