Esther Sleepe (1725–1762), was an English fan-maker.

Family

She was born to Richard Sleepe, Head of the City Waits (d.1758) and the fan maker Esther Dubois (1693-1773), and the sister of Mary Sleepe Samson and Martha Sleepe. In 1749 she married the musician

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

and became the mother of

and

Fanny Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

.Erickson, A. (2018). Esther Sleepe, Fan-maker, and her Family. Eighteenth Century Life, 42 (2), 15-37.

Business

From 1747, the Sleepe sisters managed their own workshop, ''The Golden Fan & Seven Stars'' in London, where they manufactured and sold fans and other luxury items. They were very successful. After her marriage, Esther Sleepe was the one supporting her family financially, since the profession of her spouse was poorly paid, but this fact was hidden after her generation, since the Burney family had an ambition to be seen as upper class, where it was not seen as proper for a lady to be professionally active. One of her business cards are preserved at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

: :"Esther Sleepe...Makes, Mounts and Sells all Sorts of India and English Fans with great Variety of French & English Necklaces, Drops & Earrings after the most modern Taste. Wholesale and Retail at reasonable Rates. NB. Fans mended after the neatest Manner." She was one of the successful eighteenth-century London businesswomen portrayed in the exhibition
City Women in the eighteenth Century
in London 21 September – 18 October 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sleepe, Esther 1725 births 1762 deaths 18th-century English businesspeople Ventilation fans 18th-century English businesswomen