In the late 19th century it became fashionable in the upper class to cut out monograms, names, crests or arms of outstanding personalites from letterheads, cartes de visite or envelope flaps and – rather like stamps – stick them into special scrapbooks, so-called Crest Albums. So the paper scraps could be kept and exchanged with other collectors. Of course initials of Royal family members were particularly in demand.
The fancy intertwined initials were pressed into the paper, usually colored and sometimes provided with heraldic crowns corresponding to the individual rank. This new field of collecting was most popular in Great Britain and Austria beginning in the late 1860s.
In England printing companies discovered a market niche and produced special series of coats of army regiments, ships of the Royal Navy, bishops, schools or universities which had to be stuck into the blank fields of the collecting albums.
Beside scrapbooks, also simple wooden brisé fans served for the presentaion of ones impressive collection.
In the United States the phenomenon of Crest Collecting increasingly appeared from the 1890s onwards, when simple fans of cloth and lacquered wood imported from Japan (usually in white, black or red) were offered. The collector could decorate one of those "blank fans" with cutouts from letters or bills with monograms, hotel names, flags, coats and above all names of universities. Interestingly enough, some of these small cutouts are dated and refer to a very short period, i.e. between approximately 1895 and 1898.
This extraordinary hobby continued until WWI and thereafter was completely buried in oblivion. Precisely why it is about time in my opinion to dedicate a Special Site to this interesting aspect as related to fans.

Example 2: 
Also this outstanding example dates from the 1870s which is made of solid wood. Recto and verso show three rows of intricately cut-out monograms and coats, each stick representing one country with its flag as well as its French name (e.g. "Angleterre", "Italie", "Russie" etc.) as far as possible. Outstanding personalities of European aristocracy can be found on this fan, e.g. the coat of arms of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) on one of the guard sticks, the signature and crown of Queen Luise of Sweden (1828-1871) or the monogram of Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria-Tuscany (1847-1915).

Examples 3, 4 and 5: Three examples of the typical 1890s American Crest Collecting fans in black, white and red. The leaves made of cloth are completely decorated with coats of arms, crests, monograms, flags, clubs and university names.

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