Issue 3484: Source
- Object
- Watson's Reel (Dance)
- Submitter
- Meryl Thomson
- Assigned to
- Murrough Landon
- Priority
- Normal
- Disposition
- Being handled
- Description
-
The source for Watson’s Reel is an Anon Dance Fan from 1797
Other graded dances are on the same fan: Davy’s Locker, Galloway House, Leap Year, Wedderburn’s Reel (although hard to read)
Previous Actions
- Date March 11, 2024, 7:53 p.m.
- User Unknown
New issue submitted
- Date March 12, 2024, 12:45 a.m.
- User Murrough Landon (murrough)
Assigned changed to “murrough” (previously “None”)
Disposition changed to “Being handled” (previously “New”)
For the moment I just copied this to the extra info for the dance.
- Date March 12, 2024, 12:18 p.m.
- User Murrough Landon (murrough)
Further information received from Meryl Thomson by email about the earliest known printed source for this (and other dances):
They are printed on an anonymous silk hand held fan found in the British Museum, there are many examples of this as they seemed to be very popular in the Regency period. I attach a link to a web page - https://sound-heritage.ac.uk/dance/new-dance-fan-1797
The dances are hard to see but if you study closely they do seem to match as a source for the dances I mentioned. I wonder if the RSCDS studied this in situ or there was some other source? You can pay £25 to the British Museum to get a print it seems - https://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=01613703869&itemw=4&itemf=0002&itemstep=1&itemx=29.
For more info on dance fans, have a look at Paul Cooper’s page - https://www.regencydances.org/paper047.php