9 and 10 star Flag Question

[kzacherl2000]

I picked up a fan yesterday that is an accordian style fold up fan. It has two wooden handles that look to be hand-carved. The fan itself is made of a hard cloth material. When you open the fan, the left side of the fan has a flag with 9 stars. There is a screened picture of a gentleman in the middle of the fan (similar to a dollar bill image), and the flag on the right side of the fan has 10 stars. I am not sure if it was a mistake to have one flag with 9 stars and one flag with 10 stars. Both flags have 13 stripes. Starting with red on top, and ending with red on the bottom. I was wondering if anyone could identify what year this may be from? I am wondering if it was some type of promotional item giveaway for some campaign (before there were buttons, and other promotional items to giveaway), but I am not sure at all. I have attached several pictures as well. Thank you for your time and consideration!

[Peter Ansoff]

Greetings, kzacherl2000!

Based on the portrait, which looks like Christopher Columbus, my first guess would be that your fan is a souvenier of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. I don't think that the number of stars on the flags is especially significant. Folk art representations of the flag often have oddball numbers of stars and/or stripes.

We have several collectors here who are more knowledgeable than I am about this sort of thing -- I hope that one or more of them will chime in.

Best regards,

Peter Ansoff

[kzacherl2000]

Peter, Thank you for your information. I do hope others do post their thoughts as well. Kim Z

[NAVA1974]

Peter, Thank you for your information. I do hope others do post their thoughts as well. Kim Z

I agree with Peter about the age of your fan. I have an identical fan and a photo is posted on flickr.com
Patriotic Fan - 1892 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Here are the photos of all my patriotic fans:
Flag Fans - a set on Flickr

I also agree that the number of stars is of no consequence. The illustrations show 13-star flags with some of the stars hidden by Chris's portrait.

Nick A
Columbia MD

[kzacherl2000]

Nick, I appreciate your quick response. How thoughtful of you to provide a link to yours as well. Thank you so much! Kim Z