While machine-made lace was widely available to all classes of society through the second half of the 19th century, the fashion for high quality hand-made lace saw a boom in the 1890s and 1900s, peaking between 1895 and 1905. During this time there was a revival in the taste for black Chantilly-style lace, like this piece, which had seen its greatest period of popularity in the 1850s and 1860s.
This silk bobbin lace fan mount is part of Lady Harcourt's trousseau ordered from the leading fashion house Worth of Paris for her wedding on 1 July, 1899. Other matching lace in the set included a pair of flounces and a handkerchief. The lace was made for Worth by the manufacturer Georges Robert of Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy. Lady Harcourt seems to have had a particular liking for irises, as she had a fine Burano needle lace stole of the same date, also given to the museum, with this same beautiful flower as the dominant motif.