Early table fans featured six pie-shaped blades that were adapted from those of a windmill. By the 1920s, as competition increased, manufacturers began experimenting with blade design to introduce product differentiation. Around this time, General Electric (of USA) heralded the use of overlapping blades that helped make fans quieter - and designers were quick to adapt this innovation to different forms. Emerson’s Silver Swan fan was one such instance. Designer Jane Evans used lightweight, silvery aluminium to mimic the graceful profile of a feathered flock.

The displayed fan is a variant of Evans’ model suggesting that the latter must have been popular in its time, inspiring other manufacturers to produce similar designs.