victorian fly fan

One more item to show you today is my Victorian Fly Fan. It has a wind up clock mechanism. and when let to unwind, the wings rotate in a circular motion, not fast, but just fast enough to shoo away the flies that you would find disturbing by landing in your mashed potatoes during your evening meal. Not every household could afford a luxury such as this, but enough wealthy city folk owned them to becone quite popular thus very collectable today.
Fly fans were often used in local taverns of the 1890's to discourage insects from landing on the bar foods that were kept on the bar for their customers, such as hard boiled eggs, or pickled pigs feet. The fan measures approx. 36" tall with adjustable screen filled wings, movable up and down and also wings shaped down (as pictured) or sometimes they adjusted the wings up, depending on the owner's preference.
Some wind up by winding the wingnut shaped nut located on the top of the base(as shown in the photo). Sometimes they had a key wind mechanism. With the two that I own, a full winding will run the fan for about 30 to 45 minutes. Thanks for looking...............hotairfan