Image published in Cool, published by The Fan Museum, Greenwich

The still single Hon Miss Violet Monckton, daughter of 7th Viscount Galway, was photographed, for reasons unknown to posterity, in a series of four poses and wearing two costumes. In this pose she stands looking away from the camera adding a lightly titillating touch of late-Victorian voyeurism. The rococo chimney piece background was much favoured by Lafayette in his 1898 commissions of the great actresses such as Lillie Langtry, Evelyn Millard, Rosie Boote and Nina Boucicault.

Six years later, Miss Monckton married the dashing and moustachioed soldier, Lt.-Col. Geoffrey Henry Julian Skeffington-Smyth, who himself was photographed by Lafayette in slightly swagger poses, wearing his decorations from the Boer War.

The big curled ostrich feather fan with its ribbon attachment was, in the late 1890s and early 1900s, one of the most preferred accessories for balls and formal occasions. In 1890 this saffron-coloured dyed ostrich feather fan was given to the recipient at her “coming out” first ball by “Mrs. Fred Butterfield”. Born Mary Theresa Cornwallis-West, “Daisy”, who later married Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, was also a great favourite of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The label on top of the lid of the fan’s box has crowned coats of arms for T.R.H. PRINCE & PRINCESS CHRISTIAN OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, T.R.H. PRINCE & PRINCESS HENRY OF PRUSSIA, H.R.H. GRAND DUKE & H.R.G.D. PRINCESS ALEX OF HESSE, H.M.S. THE PRINCESS VICTORIA OF HOHENLOHE-LANGENBURG and H.R.H. THE PRINCESS HANS HEINRICH OF PLESS.

It should be noted that most of these fans were furnished with a “hairpiece” (see Anne Emily, Duchess of Roxburghe), which conceals the top of the front guardstick, but which could be removed and worn as a hair ornament.