Queen Victoria's Spaniels

This fan came from a fan collector named Julia Lucey. She was a teacher in New York and purchased it from an antique auction house on 54th street. The antique and auction house had the belongings of Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward of England and daughter in-law of Queen Victoria. This delicate handpainted fan portrays two spaniels of Queen Victoria's. They were also painted by Sir Edwin Landseer in one of his famous paintings albeit they were painted from a different angle....because Queen Victoria was an avid and accomplished artist, and because her dogs were a favorite subject, I suspect she was the artist. That would also explain why this fan was prized by her daughter in-law.


The Royal Family then, as now, were big dog fanciers as evidenced by this photo of one of Queen Alexandra's beloved dogs on the furniture...(you know that chair has got to be priceless)

The Queen traveled everywhere with her dogs and when her brother died, she took the flowers and funeral wreaths sent by heads of state, and layed them on the grave of her favorite dog, Blaze,pictured here, who died the same day as her brother....

One note of interest about this fan. Julia Lucey also had acquired a fan belonging to Alexandra bearing the portrait of Commodore Perry, the man who opened trade with Japan and first brought these spaniels into the Western world as gifts to Queen Victoria. They were the ancestors of Blaze.

I wanted badly to purchase that fan as well, but honestly, I am poor and so it went to a collector in Australia.

The spaniel fan always reminds me that what I have in common with royalty is a great love of dogs....