Casgliadau Arlein

Black ostrich feather and mock-tortoiseshell sticks & guards; The lower part of the sticks is made from mock-tortoiseshell and they are extended by an upper part of black-painted, flat, wooden sticks which are adhered to one side (at the top of the lower sticks). Each stick and guard has three feathers attached to it which have been stitched together at intervals. The lower ends of the featherquills have been pared to thin them down.

The guards don't have wooden extensions and have a rounded upper end. They are longer than the mock-tortoiseshell lower parts of the sticks.

The sticks and guards have a hole in the lower end which probably would have accommodated a metal fixing-pin; however, this is now missing and all the sticks and guards are loose.

The right guard has a number of additional feathers attached to it (at least 9 [?] in total). There is the usual group of three (adhered to the inside) and another three bunches stuck to the outside. The lower ends of the outside bunches have been wrapped with black paper and one or two of them have a bent metal wire extending out of the bottom. The outside bunches have been crudely tied on with black thread. The outermost bunch has been bent downwards and the tips is (deliberately?) held down with the black thread.

The feather part of the fan has been tied together with black thread which is threaded through/ and knotted to a hole in the wooden upper part of the sticks (c. 4.5cm up from the lower end of the wooden sticks). This thread ensures that the sticks don't fall open beyond a certain point, so as to retain the fan-shape when the fan is opened.