Dean's Perfumed New Fan Almanack for 1875 (Movable Fan Book)
London: Dean & Son, [1875].
Six-shaft fan with chromolithographed calendar panels, floral designs, and perfumed paper, housed in a replaced grommet for functionality. Fully functional in excellent condition. One of the rarest known examples of Dean’s novelty fan productions.
Condition: Fan in excellent working condition. Grommet has been professionally replaced to ensure proper movement. Panels remain intact with minimal handling wear. Delicate and ephemeral, few copies are known to survive.
Description: A rare and charming survival from Dean & Son’s line of novelty publishing, this perfumed fan almanac combines artistry and function. Issued for the year 1875, the fan comprises six chromolithographed leaf-shaped panels, each corresponding to a month grouping from that year, with decorative flourishes and calendar text. The original paper was scented, although the perfume has understandably faded over time.
Fan almanacs were a Victorian fad blending fashion, utility, and ephemera—often discarded or damaged due to their fragility.
Advertising Reference below:
This exact fan is illustrated in an 1885 edition of Perry & Co.'s Monthly Illustrated Price Current, confirming its production and circulation during the period.
Dean & Son's Fancy Fan Almanacks For 1875.—The Messrs. Dean, always to the fore amongst fancy stationers, have forwarded three samples of their Fan Almanacks
for 1875, and they display the peculiarities for which the 6rm have
acquired a repute. The patterns are of three kinds—the usual fan shape,
the screen shape, and the stand shape.
Each have their separate merits as useful and art products, neat,
tasteful, and exquisite in gold and many colours, and seasonable as
presents or gifts. We have not seen anything better of the kind, at the
price—6d. and is. each.