Antique fan collectors will find a fanciful grouping of antique fans on Wednesday, June 13, at 10 am, highlighting Benefit Shop Foundation’s monthly Red Carpet auction.

Consigned a few months ago from a New York City estate, a grouping of around 100 antique folding fans is being divided up among several auctions here continuing this summer. The initial offering crossed the block in the May auction.

“This offering came out of the blue and we have been having fun sorting through the collection and amazed at the variety here. There are several fans with bone work, others with feathers, and the details are really what makes these so special,” said owner and founder Pam Stone. “We offered a few dozen fans in May and they performed very well — one sold over $2,000 and two for over $500— and I think the quality in the June auction is just as good.”

From keeping away pesky insects or unwanted male suitors, ladies have used fans for centuries. Even today, the fans are highly collectible but their delicate nature makes regular use ill-advised when it comes to the most valuable examples.

In the June auction, equally desirable and striking ladies fans, all antique and handpainted, are represented, including a Boucher French fan ($200-400) having mother of pearl handles and decorated with gold painted putties, cherubs, birds,  castles, etc., measures 21 by 13 inches when open; and a silk wood folding fan toque ladies fan painted on possibly silk or treated paper, featuring Asian themed hand painting on both sides on a silk purple background with Asian figurals, 24 by 14 inches  ($100-200).

While fans with ivory cannot be auctioned in the United States, several fans here are embellished with bone. Standouts include a two-sided fan with intricately carved bone guards featuring flower and leaf motif and painted portraits of royal figures, 9 by 13 inches ($100-200); a vintage/antique carved bone fan with shaped box panels, possibly faux  bone, thin panels with scalloped shaped edges, outer panel is decorated with intricately carved floral details, came in antique paper box with label reading “DUVELLEROY Paris,” 8 by 14 inches; and a fan painted with an Oriental outdoor scene on paper and mounted on carved openwork bone frame, possibly faux bone, having intricate filigree and multicolored, hand carved open work details, 10 by 14 inches ($100-200).

The Fan Museum in London has a collection of over 5,000 fans and fan leaves originating all over the world. “Few art forms combine functional, ceremonial and decorative uses as elegantly as the fan. Fewer still can match such diversity with a history stretching back at least 3,000 years,” according to the museum’s website.

Highlights from the May 16 auction included a gilded mother-of-pearl paper fan with hand painted panels decorated with a garden scene of cherubs surrounding a woman, carved open work, 24 ½ by 14 inches, selling for $2,032, well over its $80-120 estimate; a handpainted and carved bone fan with intricately detailed leather box, 31 by 12 inches, probably French, which earned $475, retaining a collectors label reading Cabriolet 1755-1770; and a antique Louis XIV style two-sided fan in it original decorated and lined box, having intricate bone carving and hand painted decoration, 16 ½ by 10 inches, that went out at $508.

The monthly Red Carpet sales feature choice collections of antique, Midcentury Modern, brand furnishings, sterling, china, crystal, jewelry and fine art. With a mission of “to donate, to discover and to do good,” the foundation is a non-profit and all auction proceeds support community organizations. Consignors get a tax deduction, the buyer gets a great deal and local non-profits get much needed funds.

The auction takes place at 185 Kisco Avenue, Suite 201, and online. For more information, https://www.thebenefitshop.org or 914-864-0707.