Fan

The image of the lady and the black servant on this fan is in a familiar tradition of representing black people in Britain as servants for white employers, or - in American and Caribbean contexts - as slaves. This image is unusual because it appears on a fan. The scene of a black man or boy serving a woman in a garden is reminiscent of Robert Hancock's popular design The Tea Party, which was transfer-printed on ceramics and also appears on an enamel snuff box in the V&A's collection.