Fan with case - with the arms of Archduke Rudolf of Habsburg and Princess Stephanie

In the middle of the plain, brownish-coloured recto a young woman, with her attendants, is approaching in a gilded triumphal chariot drawn by swallows. The young woman—her hair brown and her attire salmon-pink— holds the reins lightly her eyelids are lowered and her posture easy. Scarcely touching her shoulder, a young, blonde female figure attired in blue hovers behind her, and—taking flowers from a garland held by a winged putto—scatters them in the chariot's wake. A black-haired female figure in star-patterned attire clears the way for the swallows. Around the chariot the sky is brightening, and the dark clouds are receding to either side of the leaf. The mark is in the bottom left: Louis Leloir 1881. The fan's white verso is edged with wavy, light-blue ribbon traversed by roses in the middle, in a blue cartouche, are the paired coats of arms of Archduke Rudolph (1858—1889) and Princess Stephanie (1864—1945), of the royal house of Belgium. On the sticks, which yield a continuous surface when the fan is open, Rococo pastoral idylls and garden pavilions can be seen in cartouches of various shapes and sizes. On the upper part of the guard-sticks there are Rococo female and male figures. The fan-box is rectangular, with rounded corners it is supplied with a lifting top and a press-button catch. The top of the box and the inner rim of its lower part are ornamented round with a gilded serpentine motif. Archduke Rudolph and Princess Stephanie were married on 10 May 1881, in Vienna's Church of the Augustinians and in all probability this fan featured among the wedding presents for the bride. According to the easily unravelled meaning of the allegorical depiction on the leaf, with the marriage of the heir to the throne to the Belgian princess —as with the arrival of Dawn driving away Night—, a new day was beginning for the empire. The scene, painted vividly and with very great charm, is the work of the Parisian painter Alexander Leloir (1843—1884).