The Tal Collection includes fans of all shapes, featuring various subjects and made of a number of different materials. The majority are fixed screen fans, folding fans and brisé fans.

The fixed screen fan originates from China and Japan. It consists of a handle made of gold, ivory or precious wood, to which a screen has been affixed. The screen is mostly fastened to a frame; it may have any of a number of various shapes: circular, rectangular or any fancy shape. The materials used include stiff fabrics, feathers, paper and wood. In the eighteenth century, fixed screen fans went out of use almost completely in Europe.

Folding fans were most popular in Europe from the sixteenth until well into the twentieth century. A folding fan is made of a frame, consisting of a number of legs that glide over each other, and two outside legs that are held together by a clip at the bottom. A zigzag folded screen is attached to the frame.

The brisé fan is also a folding fan, but in this case the entire fan, including the screen, consists of overlapping legs. These are made of wood, ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl or tortoise shell. The entire screen is hand painted in oils and features brightly-coloured, classical or oriental scenes. At the top, the legs are held together by a ribbon, at the botoom by a clip. In Europe, the brisé fan was much in use from the seventeenth until the end of the nineteenth century.

Because of the great diversity of materials (ivory, mother-of-pearl, tortoise shell, precious metals, fabrics, paper, parchment) and the many techniques that were applied, fans are valuable examples of artisanal craftsmanship. The representations on the screens tell us a lot about the way people lived and thought in earlier centuries, each period being illustrated by representarions that were popular at the time. Mythology formed a much-loved theme, as did allegorical and pastoral images, love scenes as well as biblical representations. Apart from European fans, Chinese and Japanese lacquer fans were also highly fashionable.