Note 134 — ENGRAVED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. PART I
Reading edition
In French salons, about the year 1728, the fashion prevailed of ‘Les Pantins Méchaniques,’ that every one carried and worked by the aid of strings while chatting of one thing and another. Lacroix, XVIII Siècle, France, 1700-87, p. 507.
From 1748 to 1750 it was in high vogue among the beau monde as a diverting plaything for gentlemen and ladies. Wright, Caricature History of the Georges, note, p. 251.