Adrift in a sea of digital apps for every imaginable function, we often feel our needs are met better today than in any previous era. But consider the chatelaine, a device popularized in the 18th century that attached to the waist of a woman’s dress, bearing tiny useful accessories, from notebooks to knives. In many ways chatelaines provided better access to such objects than we have today: How often have you searched for your keys or cell phone at the bottom of a cavernous bag?
“Certainly, they clanked; when they moved, the chatelaine would’ve made a lot of noise.”
Like a customized Swiss Army knife, a chatelaine provided its wearer with exactly the tools she needed closest at hand. For an avid seamstress, that might include a needle case, thimble, and tape measure, while for an active nurse it might mean a thermometer and safety pins. Inspired by the complex key rings carried by “la chatelaine,” the female head of a grand French estate, these beautiful, little contraptions were as fashionable as they were practical. In fact, their design was sometimes so trendy that style trumped usefulness.
We recently spoke with collector Genevieve Cummins, co-author of the book Chatelaines: Utility to Glorious Extravagance, about the forgotten history of chatelaines.
Collectors Weekly: In what context did chatelaines develop?
Cummins: From early times, humans have had to carry necessary items on their person. A practical solution was to hang these from the waist. Keys or tools such as scissors could be carried attached to a cord or ribbon, or these items could also be placed in a pouch. This became quite common from the 16th to 18th centuries.
The concept of waist-hung items is almost universal across all cultures. For example, the Japanese wore netsuke and inro or the Chinese wore embroidered purses and pouches. Though purses and pouches preceded the chatelaine—they are mentioned in Chaucer—later purses were very small and dainty. The chatelaine was a more useful addition to an outfit.
Some items, like toiletries or precious possessions, were placed in fitted containers called étuis, made of base or precious metals, and when worn on a cord would be called “equipages.” From the introduction of the watch, circa 1510, watches were worn by women on such watch equipages, or on a long chain with watch at one end and keys seal etc at the other end. These chains were worn looped over the waistband or draped across the body.
However, the word “chatelaine” was not used until 1828 when a London magazine called The World of Fashion reported a new accessory, called “la chatelaine.” The medieval chatelaine had worn the keys to the castle, so these new accessories included a symbolic key, as the ladies were wearing them as a symbol of their status as “The Lady Chatelaine” of their chateau.
The next year the same magazine published three fashion plates of ladies wearing chatelaines. The word is now used for earlier examples, though technically these should really be called equipages. During the 19th century, the popularity of chatelaines varied, but it was still a major fashion accessory.
Collectors Weekly: Who produced these devices?
Cummins: Most major jewellers made or sold chatelaines, including Tiffany, Liberty, H.W. Dee, Samson Mordan, Thornhill, Boucheron, Faberge, Lalique, and many more. It absolutely stunned me when I looked at a book called The Master Jewelers, and saw that almost every major and famous jeweler in the later 19th century, at some stretch, had made a chatelaine.
These were mainly watch versions, but absolutely beautiful items encrusted with diamonds and enamels. The majority were made as a complete entity and were matching. Complete examples are the most aesthetically pleasing and collectible, but not always easy to find. Interestingly, the original sets that have survived are more likely to be made from base metals because it’s not worthwhile for people to break them up into pieces. The base metal and steel examples were generally mass produced.
Collectors Weekly: How were chatelaines actually worn?
Cummins: There were two styles. The majority have a medallion at the top, and then behind that is a metal tongue that hooks over the waistband. The other style, which is more typically American, has a very long brooch pin at the back.
Gowns of the era did not have large or convenient pockets and women did not have large handbags, only little bags or reticules. It was therefore necessary to carry any items that were needed for a specific pursuit. There were even chatelaines for nursing, sporting, painting, or dolls.
Collectors Weekly: What kind of person carried a chatelaine?
Cummins: All members of society, from mistresses to maids. Royalty wore them, though these were more likely to be a watch, purse, or fan example, and nurses carried their necessary medical implements on their chatelaines. The quality of the items and its variety would carry status; each would have a variety appropriate for their needs.
There was also a lot of symbolism used in these accessories, like pansies for thoughts, etc. I have one that’s got crosses, anchors, hearts, and stars on it, as a faith, hope, and charity symbol. I think the anchors were a symbol of hope.
I think this particular one might have even been a mourning chatelaine, because after I bought the item, I put my finger in the thimble bucket and out came this tiny piece of paper with a quotation from Longfellow: “Oppression, and sickness, and sorrow, and pain Shall be to our true love as links to the chain.” It really had quite a punch.
Collectors Weekly: Did women wear them out in public, or only in the home?
Cummins: The really beautiful ones were worn in public. There was a typical American variety, which is like a miniature chatelaine with only one chain that drapes across the body and has a watch at the end. And in fact, there is quite a well-known carte-de-visite of Mary Todd Lincoln, and she’s almost certainly wearing one of these. This way of wearing the watch was part of her fashion statement, part of her jewelry.
To some extent, on these long, flowing gowns a chatelaine broke the plainness of a skirt. Dance chatelaines were worn when you went to a ball or a party. But the really utilitarian, basic ones you would’ve only worn around the house. You’re more likely to find images of housekeepers or nurses wearing those.
I was very excited to find a photo of a lady sitting in a big crinoline gown wearing a chatelaine, because she was a titled lady but she was photographed at home doing her needlework. It’s the only image I’ve ever seen like that. Her chatelaine was important enough to her that she was happy to have her photograph taken while wearing it.
Collectors Weekly: What types of accessories were made for chatelaines?
Cummins: There was a gentleman called Walter Thornhill in England, and in our book we printed an article detailing the contents of his shop, and the list of objects is just incredible. It went on for pages with the varieties that were available.
There were some very basic, common things like the purses and the spectacle holders. The chatelaines to take to balls would often have a perfume bottle, a notebook, and a pencil, and sometimes a little purse where you put a little sovereign or a single coin or a handkerchief. I discovered quite a lot of articles about the plight of the pocketless woman in regards to where you put your handkerchief.
The most common notebook would have ivory leaves, and it might have five or six little pages in it that swivel. I don’t think they used it for anything serious; I think some of this was just affectation. But they’re very special when you find them still with messages written in. One notebook from the 1930s actually had a list of the winners of the Melbourne Cup, a major Australian horserace. I looked them up and they were correct, so I assume she had worn it to the Melbourne Cup and written down the names of the winners.
The little needlework toolkits that they used to take to their sewing circles vary from the most basic to the most absolutely glorious, exquisite things that you would never use because they’re too delicate. Many would have been more for “show and tell.” The needlework chatelaines would have a scissors holder, a thimble holder, a needle case, and sometimes a tape measure and a pinwheel where pins went in the sides.
Then there was another style called a “Norwegian belt” which royalty and high society clamored for in the 1870s and ’80s. They had interchangeable pieces with fans and perfume bottles and needlework tools. Not many people would’ve been able to afford them. The Norwegian belt that I have is so heavy that when you put it on a mannequin, it just slowly sinks down. It’s unbelievably heavy.
I found another extraordinary one that was made for a lady artist who painted the birds of paradise up in New Guinea. It was commissioned for her and had a little paint box, a container for brushes, and a container for water, all in silver. I also discovered one for playing golf, with little score cards and a pencil. Ladies even wore pen knives and cork screws, occasionally; it just depended on what they felt that they would need.
Collectors Weekly: What’s the most attachments you’ve seen on a single chatelaine?
Cummins: About 12 or 13. I’ve got some images of the larger steel ones and they are extraordinary. Certainly, they clanked; when they moved, the chatelaine would’ve made a lot of noise. Nuns wore an equivalent device, and they got used to holding the chains when they were approaching the children, so the children couldn’t hear they were coming.
It’s a very characteristic noise, and I think that was part of your status. They had some fabulous cartoons in Punch that caricatured the loud steel ones.
Collectors Weekly: Were certain styles more utilitarian than others?
Cummins: The ones that seem to be the most practical were the purses and the spectacle holders. There’s a great photograph of a lady during wartime who is wearing a purse chatelaine, a pen chatelaine, and a spectacle chatelaine, so that she had on her whatever she needed to go around.
That’s why the nurses adopted them, because they needed to carry all their basic essentials—thermometers, scissors, safety pins, styptics for dressing wounds, all sorts of things. At the children’s hospital where I’ve just recently retired, nurses in the emergency department are still wearing leather pouches from their waist, to hold pens and pencils and thermometers and scissors. And they don’t realize they’re wearing a nurse’s chatelaine, which goes back to the late 19th century.
They often had a shield-shaped leather pouch with all the little slots in it that you put things into, like a slightly up-market gentleman’s tool kit, or they had extra bits hanging off the leather pouch, such as a Red Cross pin cushion or a watch.
I’ve got a number of images of nurses wearing ones with steel, but I have also seen one in sterling silver. In one of our big hospitals here in Sydney, there’s a photograph of all the nurses in 1895, and I would say a third of them are wearing chatelaines, and they’re all slightly different.
Collectors Weekly: What are the most unique chatelaines you’ve come across?
Cummins: The most interesting ones were made for special uses, like nursing, painting, sports like golf or archery, children, or dolls. The most beautiful ones (made in gold, silver, enamel, precious stones, filigree, etc.) were those for watches, fans, perfume, and purses.
The ultimate chatelaine is an example that relates to one of the fashion plates of 1829, when the name was coined. This chatelaine is constructed of linked antique and ancient intaglios set in gold and includes the symbolic key and an agate locket. It drapes across the body then loops over the belt. I’ve had the individual pieces dated, and the actual intaglio seals come from a couple of hundred BC to a few hundred AD. A lot of people collected these seals when they went on their grand tours of Europe, and I think maybe this was put together later when the chatelaine fashion came in.
Collectors Weekly: Why did chatelaines go out of style?
Cummins: A couple of things caused this: One was the take-over of the wristwatch from the pocket watch (previously worn on a vest or guard chain or as a brooch). Handbags also became larger so ladies could carry their paraphernalia in these, rather than wear them separately. Women were becoming emancipated so were freer to move around and new fashions came and went. Some ladies still use a variety of needlework tool chatelaines today, and occasionally one sees a purse or watch made to wear at the waist.
Collectors Weekly: What surprised you about chatelaines?
Cummins: Just the ingenuity of them. As far as I know, there is no museum anywhere that has a good selection of the whole range of styles of chatelaines. It’s a subject that has been completely and utterly ignored.
Chatelaines were not an incredibly widespread fashion, but they were popular enough to have long articles written about them in a few of the ladies’ magazines of the day. You’ll see a few scattered here and there in museums, mainly 18th and early 19th century watch chatelaines, but it’s an aspect of women’s fashion accessories that has never been well represented. I don’t think people realize how gorgeous and varied they can be.
(All images courtesy Genevieve Cummins, except for cartoons and fashion illustrations. If you buy something through a link in this article, Collectors Weekly may get a share of the sale. Learn more.)
Horrifyingly bad, cringe-worthy headline for a fascinating article.
Perhaps, ‘Fannypacks of the Past’, then?
The transition to the empire waist and slimmer silhouettes of the Regency/Napoleonic styles that ended the giant pockets worn previously under skirts must also played a role.
As a historical re-enactor, I am aware of these delights and have considered adding a repro one to my repro costume. A real one would send me into ecstasy.
Can someone explain to me what he means by “vinaigrette” in this context?
Like- a container to hold an emulsion of oil and vinegar? To dress food or… something else?
Hi Jen,
A vinaigrette was a small container, often with a perforated top, used to hold used an aromatic substance like vinegar or smelling salts. In the Victorian period, these “restoratives” became popular for women to carry as a means of fighting the stench of urban areas, or to revive themselves in cases of exhaustion under the duress of heavy clothing and tight corsets. Basically, it was a little pick me up in uncomfortable circumstances. :)
Hunter
interesting to see what people used to do…very creative! Now in this day and age, I’m re-introducing a concept that relates to these chatelaines in the sense of wearing one’s necessary things ON one’s body. Clearly as shown by your article…this idea isn’t new, but it’s new to most people living in 2013. My patented modern-day version is designed to often wear on a user’s leg (among other places)…and is a way for us to avoid babysitting that bag &/or avoid dumpster diving into it (into another time zone!) to find our cell or whatever… my mission with PortaPocket is simply: lose the worry…not your stuff.
Thanks for sharing this history and insights!
a wonderful article, I didn’t want it to end:)
Another “Killer” Article!
Thanks to you both Hunter and Genevieve!
thanks for reading vetraio! :)
Thank you for a very interesting article, especially for a collector of Victorian silver/gold pencils which often were attached to these Chatelaines. Cheers
This answers some questions about objects that I have that belonged to my great grandmother and grandmother. Can’t wait to get home and look through them again with this article in mind.
I loved this article. I only recently had seen and heard of these on Collectors Weekley..what a beautiful accessory and useful too. They are very intriguing to me, a jewellery NUT! Thanks for sharing..
The Original “App for That.”
Love chatelaines, and have a small collection of antique tools along with modern reproductions which are becoming more popular. Am an artist, and love the very idea of beautiful tools. Am constantly experimenting with ways to carry my tools around. I do have an artist’s chatelain for my own tools, but wish you had put the picture of the artist’s antique chatalaine in the article. All practical tools were available for men and women who traveled as well. I have seen draftsman’s tools, eating utensils, and other collections in tiny etui, along with chatelaines. Love them all. It’s handy for today’s modern woman who travels. Pen, notepad, sewing kit, etc. Why should our things be ugly plastic made overseas?
I am a retired nurse and I was entranced by this article- the scales fell from my eyes- it made so much sense! We carried scissors, pens, penlights, tape, alcohol wipes, needles…. etc., need I go on? You never had enough pockets! The habit some of my colleagues adopted of wearing fanny packs was practical but cumbersome. This was fascinating, Thank you so much!
I guess I am old fashion when I wear my glasses on a chain so I will always have them with me. At least I don’t have to look for them or go get them when I need them.
Great article! Chatelaines were used by men as well.
The medieval chatelaine was an extension of the old Norse or Viking tradition of apron dresses.
Norse apron dresses had two large brooches pinning the straps down. Strings of colorful, expensive glass and gemstone beads were hung between them in swags. The female head of household also had useful household or personal grooming items hanging from chains which were strung on the pinbacks, too.
So chatelaines go back even further than you’d think!
Simply can’t thank you enough Mr. Hunter & M. Genevieve for this wonderful article & all it’s detail. Such things were always a most curious fascination for me & i found such beatific, utilitarian uses yet never understood much apart from my own grandmother’s wearing of a few such lady like accoutrements as she & grandfather raised me in their very late years (she always wore a large selection of fine white gloves too when out in public too!)
Often she wore pansy’s too, might you be able to explain a bit more what might pansies represented?
I inherited a few of her things including small incased scissors, a sewing needle, slightly bent sterling silver thimble ( i recall her saying it stayed on her thumb better in old age), a brass watch on a expanding chain, & rather hefty brass enclosed fairly large magnifying glass stung from a rather thick large cord to be worn around neck.
She also had a rather large collection pansies pins & various sizes of clips.
Would you please tell me what did such pansies represent; as i do know she that she inherited many of the pieces she had collected & saved? Anything you might add would be most welcome!
Such fascinating & illuminating work i greatly look forward to reading many more of your insightful articles. This is the first i’ve ever come across & i am ever so grateful – so fascinating!
Hi Layne,
Thanks for your kind words! I don’t know much about pansy holders, but I do know that in the Victorian era, the “Language of Flowers” was a sentimental way of sending others coded messages. I think generally pansies were meant to symbolize “thinking of you,” possibly because of the similarity in the French words for pansy and thought (pensée).
best,
Hunter
What an interesting article! Have you thought of writing a book? If so, I would like to hear about it and then purchase it. Really!!
Fascinating article!
Came across it after googling the word “chatelaine” having seen one on today’s Flog It programme. First time to come across the word although have seen photos and have some small items in my posession that have been attached to something or other. Mystery solved!
Look forward to reading more of your interesting articles.
I too googled chatelaine and found ur article. They r often mentioned. In romance novels set in early England. The ladies who saw to the smooth running of castles or estates wore them.
There are examples in the Museum of Bags and Purses (Tassenmuseum) in Amsterdam, 573 Herengracht. They have 5,000 items and it’s the largest of its kind in the world. https://tassenmuseum.nl/en/
Thank-you for this very interesting and detailed article. After reading that the Anglo-Saxon Winfarthing woman who was buried in the 7th century had been found with a “collection of copper alloy chatelaine rings”, I googled the term and thanks to this website discovered what a fascinating subject this is.
Wonderful article!
I have a beautiful old chateleine, which came with watch key, scissors and an aide memoir. I’ve added a little mirror, a mesh purse and a mechanical pencil. I really appreciate your informative article. I was not able to find much. I do have question: mine has a metal rod that looks like it would fit in a button hole but I’m not sure if that’s right. The thing is quite heavy so I think a button hole might rip.,
wonderful article. I was wondering what they were when I came across reading them in my Anne books (maybe Anne of the island)
It was wonderful to find this article, thank you very much. I have a silver spectacle case with a chatelaine and clip (from hallmarks I figure it is from 1906, Joseph Gloster silversmiths in Birmingham). I am making an illustrated binder for my granddaughters, describing 10 or 12 or so antiques I have (everything from chamber pots to pickle jars to a Wedgwood cheese dish). To bring these items to life, in this case this silver glasses case, I wanted to share as best I could information about who wore them and how. We will have to speculate on the monogram “MAL”! One day, I will give them these items.
I love this idea and the look of wearing a chatelaine bag. Can you share where I can purchase one? I think we need to bring them back into vogue
I have two chatelaines one brass and the other made of a pink satin ribbon. How common or rare are the ribbon ones?
Loved the article.
Excellent article. I too, made reference to Google to see what a Chataline was, after seeing it on Antiques Roadshow.
The Australian reference just tickled me, when I read the article!
Everything came to us- eventually…