The portraits painted onto this ivory brisé fan represent, from left to right, Prince William, Duke of Clarence, later King William IV (1765-1837); George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (1762-1830); and Prince Frederick, Duke of York (1763-1827). The portraits are based on engravings after paintings by Thomas Lawrence and Richard Cosway. Cosway's miniature portrait of the Prince of Wales was first engraved by Thomas Burke and published in December 1787. The high quality of the painting suggests that the fan may have been made for a member of the royal family, possibly one of the princesses.

The guards of this fan are particularly unusual. They incorporate small jasper-ware plaques made in the Wedgwood factory. The jasper process was perfected in 1777 and plaques gradually became available for use in decorative pieces, although no records have survived to indicate that fan-makers purchased the plaques direct from Wedgwood. The design of the plaque applied to the front guard in this fan was taken from an intaglio in the collection of Louis XV depicting Hercules overcome by Love; engraved copies were available in numerous publications. The plaque on the back guard shows a sacrifice to Ceres or Diana. The decoration of the guards includes strung cut-steel beads, produced in the Soho works of Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) from the 1760s. The Royal Collection contains two other fans with Wedgwood plaques: another ivory brisé fan, and a silk fan with steel guards.

Text adapted from Unfolding Pictures: Fans in the Royal Collection 2005