ABSTRACT

On display in the Conference Suit at the Tomasi Di Lampedusa Family Museum at 28 Palazzo Butero in Palermo, Sicily is a stunning collection of thirty-eight Louis XIV French handheld fans. Olivia Lanza di Mazzarino (1891–1970), duchess of Sagro, nicknamed Vivina, garnered the collection during the twentieth century. Today, the folding fans form part of the fascinating family collections at the Lampedusa museum, where they are displayed in specially designed showcases, built directly into three walls of the aforementioned suit. This chapter will take as a study Vivina’s collection of folding fans in order to explore eighteenth-century material culture in collections beyond the eighteenth-century period. I will examine Vivina’s family, her social group, and her way of life. Additionally, I will consider how the collection is systematized today and the meanings that emerge from its display.