fly whisk (personal protection)

Fly whisk plume in a box, which is made of black peacock feathers with an inner set of 'eye' feathers on a bamboo and paper core, and a handle bound in red silk. It is kept in a cylinder of paper-backed orange cotton with a Chinese inscription. This is in a rigid frame box covered in blue cotton outside, and lined in red cotton inside. A flattened paper cylinder of the same dimensions as the plume-holder is in the box, plus two empty envelopes of plain white paper.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk