Antique Hand Painted French Hand Fan, First Empire, c.1800-1815, Blond Tortoise Shell or Horn

I have an entire large crate filled with antique fans. I'll be adding them as I have time, so mark our site and please come back to see them all. This one is a wonderful and early hand painted beauty, just 6 1/2" long when closed, and it's beautifully preserved. I think at some point it has had a new silk ribbon, probably within the last 80-100 years, which is stable and lovely. Each stick is worked with cutaway patterning. It opens to a full 11 1/2". The transparency of the old carved tortoise shell or perhaps boiled horn sticks is charming, flirty. One can see through the fan. Very good to excellent condition for age and type. There is no ring, but you can see that the sticks are in fine condition and the hand painted roses are as delicate and lovely as they were more than 200 years ago. Fit for a museum, or a sophisticated collector's inventory. It did not have a box when I bought it in France many years ago, and I've had it in archival tissue for safe storage since. I sometimes los