A Note From The Founders... | |
Our collecting journey has continued over the years, and so has our search for more items that relate to the perfumes we've come to love. Last month our PassageWAY eNews shared one of Perfume Passages fun accessory collections--lipsticks.
So this month we thought we'd continue highlighting another one of our interesting accessory items that you can wear--chatelaines!
| |
Sincerely,
Jeffrey and Rusty, Co-founders
| |
Today we have pockets, backpacks, totes and fanny packs to hold our everyday necessities. However, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, chatelaines were an innovative and popular accessory item that allowed both women and men to carry a variety of items and were often worn as a fashion statement.
Chatelaine comes from the French word meaning "lady of the castle," as in medieval times the lady of the castle wore a belt hook that she suspended her keys to the castle.
Today, when referring to a chatelaine, it includes the clip or pin that hangs from a lady's waist, along with the dangling chains with accessory items that are attached to the chains.
Chatelaines and their usefulness came in a variety of styles that followed the fashions and trends of the time period. They evolved from single rings and chains in the Middle Ages that allowed men to carry knives and weapons to ladies wearing them at dance balls in the mid 1800s, wearing fans, pencils with writing tablets, small purses, vinaigrettes, sewing implements and other household items suspended from several chains.
| |
This steel chatelaine was made by J.B. Durham of London and was featured in The Illustrated London News in August 1851. | |
Chatelaines can be found in gold, silver, steel, gold-filled, silver-plate and enamel, and the appendages to hang from chatelaine chains seem endless.
Collectors look for complete chatelaines with matching pieces or look for ornate chatelaine hooks and clips, searching for a variety of miscellaneous items to hang from the chains. The collection at Perfume Passage includes both complete chatelaines, along with small, beautiful perfume bottles that were intended to hang from a chatelaine.
| |
Award-winning actress Rosalind Russell was fond of chatelaines and images of her wearing one on her wrist are seen here. The items she would hang from the chains were given to her by friends and other celebrities. | |
The Chatelaine Collection... | |
This silver and enamel five-piece dance chatelaine is of Japanese origin and most likely would have been made for the export market. The appendages include two perfume bottles, a flirt mirror, a pencil and a celluloid dance pad. The pieces are marked with Japanese letters, and the ornate clip is 3" wide. | |
|
A four-piece gold-tone chatelaine has an enamel clip with attached chains and a center Egyptian Pharaoh medallion. The enamel pieces include a lorgnette, perfume bottle, celluloid dance card and pencil. There's no marking on the chatelaine and it dates from the early 1900s. | |
This beautiful gold-colored 8" long, five-chain chatelaine is not marked. The items include a lipstick, perfume holder, compact, flirt mirror and glove/button hook. The matching pieces have a hammered design with flowers and bees and includes rubies, sapphires and rose-cut diamonds. | |
|
From compact collector and author Roz Gerson's collection at Perfume Passage, this enamel chatelaine is 6-1/4" long and hangs from a 3-1/4" clip.
Hanging from the multicolored enamel links are a flirt mirror, compact, perfume bottle, dance card and pencil.
Another one from Roz's collection is this 1900s five piece brassy filigree chatelaine (above right).
It includes a glove/button hook, compact, perfume bottle, celluloid dance card and pencil. All the pieces, except the pencil, have a green enamel clover on them.
| |
|
Another beautiful enamel five-piece chatelaine with ornate links. It includes a compact, glove/button hook, perfume bottle, pencil and celluloid dance card. While the pencil is not original to the chatelaine, as it doesn't have enamel on it, the chatelaine would have had a matching pencil originally.
| |
This unusual Dutch 10" long, one-chain chatelaine is in silverplate. The clip has an ornate crest with "JE Maintiendrai," which means "I will maintain." A perfume bottle dangles from the heavy chain, which has a rooster holding an instrument on the cap, and the bottle has a snake hissing at an animal!
The motto is from the House of Orange and Nassau, the Royal Family of the Netherlands.
| |
This beautiful silverplate 1900s chatelaine clip includes five ball/loop chain links so a collector can search for items to complete their chatelaine. The clip has an ornate devil-looking creature on it! | |
This four-piece chatelaine is 7" long with a simple finger ring for a lady to hold as she attends a dance! The pieces include a holder with a perfume vial, a powder compact, a rouge compact and lipstick. The pieces have matching etched flowers and flower baskets with the monogram AJF. This dates from the early 1920s, and each piece is marked 14k. | |
A three-chain gold chatelaine also measures 7" long and includes a powder compact, holder with a perfume vial and hand mirror.
The pieces on this early 1920s chatelaine are all marked 14k and have the same scroll designs.
| |
This five-piece sterling chatelaine was considered a "dance" chatelaine as it included specific pieces a lady would consider necessary as she danced the night away! The items include a heart-shaped compact with a mirror and powder puff, a perfume bottle, a nickel coin holder (for bus fare!), a pencil and a celluloid dance pad. All pieces have scroll designs and are marked with the initial B, except for the pencil. | |
This stunning 9" long, five-chain Damascene chatelaine includes a clip and matching pieces with an ornate swirl design with dragons! Damascene is the inlay of different metals into one another to produce intricate patterns or designs. The items include two perfume bottles, flirt mirror, celluloid dance card and pencil. This dates from the early 1900s and is of Japanese origin and possibly made by artist Yoshihiko. | |
An unusual 10" four strap leather chatelaine. Brassy clips connect the straps to the pieces. The items include a notebook with a pencil, perfume, seal with a flower on the bottom and mirror.
No markings on the chatelaine, but similar ones appeared in 1897 and 1898 advertisements in the Lady's Pictorial magazine.
The publication was a prominent illustrated weekly magazine beginning in the 1880s and continuing into the early 1900s, featuring fashion and society news.
| |
Perfumes for Chatelaines... | |
Small perfume bottles in a variety of materials were popular items to hang from a chatelaine and also allowed a lady to carry them by the finger ring to social events. Perfume Passage has a variety of these bottles on display throughout the galleries. Other ladies accessory items were also produced to hang from a chatelaine including small purses, eyeglass cases and sewing implements. | |
Two early 1900s single perfume bottles attached to a chatelaine clip. (Left) A 4" long sterling bottle with black enamel all over with a screw-off cap. The front has an area for a monogram. (Right) An enamel clip with matching perfume bottle measures 6" long and has a different design on each side. It was made by well-known Russian artist Antip Kuzmichev in the 1890s. | |
|
(Left) A 4-1/2" agate chatelaine perfume with silver overlay with garnets and turquoise. The hinged cap is a man with turban.
(Above) This 2" green glass perfume bottle has a silver gilt all over with figurines in the center on both sides. The twist-off cap is attached to a chain.
| |
Always amazing that glass chatelaine perfume bottles survived, as they dangled! This 3-1/8" cranberry-colored glass perfume has a hinged cap and glass stopper. The cap has a raised skull with garnet eyes, along with a chain and finger ring. | |
Porcelain perfume bottles, such as this 2" heart-shaped painted bottle, adorned many chatelaines in the late 1800s. It has a hinged cap with a glass stopper. | |
Vinaigrettes for Chatelaines... | |
We know early scents were often used to ward off disease and odors, so musk, ambergris and spices, among other ingredients, were often formed into a ball or apple shape and called "pomme d' ambre, "pomme de senteur" or musk ball.
The French name pomme d'ambre eventually became the word pomander, which describes the perfumed balls along with other perforated containers such as vinaigrettes that were found hanging from chatelaines.
The Perfume Passage vinaigrette collection is on display in the Vault gallery, and while most of these were not found as part of a chatelaine, they were often intended to hang from chatelaine chains. We're sharing a few of our favorites!
| |
This 6" rose, green and black crochet/knitted vinaigrette purse has a double chain with a finger ring. The top 1-1/4" square glass covers a colorful scene that opens to reveal the vinaigrette. It's engraved "1846 Calendrier" (calendar) on the inside. | |
A treasure of the Perfume Passage vinaigrette collection is this Tiffany 1870s sterling perfume vinaigrette in the shape of a Roman amphora (below). It has flowers all over and includes a chain and finger ring to carry it. This would have been a perfect item for a chatelaine as well. The top screws off to place perfume, and the center opens to reveal the vinaigrette area.
Inside the vinaigrette area, it's marked Tiffany sterling. It also has the initial M and 1529 Union Square. This piece was made by noted American silversmith and art collector Edward Chandler Moore. He learned his craft in his father's shop as a partner from 1848-1851 and inherited the business. He entered into an exclusive contract with Tiffany & Co. in 1868 as an independent outside silversmith.
In 1870, Tiffany's moved to the Union Square address in New York, and the initial M for Moore allows us to date this piece to the 1870s. Moore worked as Tiffany's chief silver designer until his death in 1891.
| |
A small round 1" gold vinaigrette (below) has tri-gold colored leaves surrounded by turquoise stones. The design is the same on both sides, and it opens to place the scented cloth inside. | |
A recent addition to our collection is this 1" gold and enamel vinaigrette in the shape of a sailor's sennit hat (below). The sennit, or straw hat, was part of the British naval uniform from 1857 to 1921, when it was formally discontinued by order. It usually included the ship's name on a band around the hat. | |
The back hinged cover is inscribed H.L.M from M.M. 6. Jany. 1868. This area opens to hold the scented sponge.
This was presented by Captain Malcolm Murray-MacGregor to his wife Helen Laura before he set out on the maiden voyage of the sloop Danae to South Africa.
The captain was a Scottish baronet and senior Royal Navy officer and the grandson of Admiral Thomas Masterman Hardy.
| |
The library at Perfume Passage includes many early catalogs and advertisements that featured early chatelaines and chatelaine items. If only... | |
The 1890 Marshall Field catalog offered chatelain (note the spelling) bags for sale. Prices ranged from $3.75 a dozen to $25 a dozen for leather-lined genuine alligator bags. | |
Eyeglass cases were convenient items to hang on a chatelaine, as seen in this Portland, Oregon, December 1898 advertisement.
And if you purchased a pair of gold glasses during the holidays in 1902, you could receive a free chatelaine case.
Sewing utensils were another popular chatelaine item, and according to a Bloomingdales ad in the New York Evening World newspaper in December 1912, they made "highly desirable Christmas gifts."
Many sewing chatelaines were made of ribbon from which items were hung from bone, celluloid or ivory rings.
| |
|
For years, newspapers were promoting and advertising perfumes as popular chatelaine accessory items.
A short article in the January 1899 Boston Globe newspaper promoted chatelaine perfume balls, stating "where it was possible, they were jeweled."
In 1913, the Ottawa, Ontario Citizen newspaper advertised chatelaine perfume cases that included a tiny vial of perfume encased in a cylinder attached to a chain. Claiming it was a "Paris novelty, seven different odors" were available.
| |
An advertisement in the April 1910 Kansas City Star newspaper promoted several items that hang from a chatelaine. Prices seem reasonable to us! | |
|
An article in the June 11, 1910 Toronto Star newspaper went on at length, complaining about how cumbersome chatelaines were! | |
Part of the article, shown above, quoted men who thought "women can cause more trouble with their modern up-to-date chatelaines than a bull in a china shop!" Train conductors also thought it would be a good thing if women were advised to have their money ready when asking to buy their train tickets. They claimed that it took them twice as long to collect fares from women with chatelaines as it does from male passengers and women without chatelaines.
Who would have thought that the now highly collectible chatelaines would have caused men to have such strong opinions about a useful and practical fashion accessory over 100 years ago!!
| |
Treasure in the Collection... | |
Displayed in the vault gallery is this rare and fantastic Russian sterling chatelaine clip! It measures 8" long, has a Blackamoor figure with emeralds and rubies and has three chains to hang items. There are quartz, rubies, emeralds and pearls all over, and the chains have figurines and hands at the ends of the rings. The clip has Russian hallmarks, and it comes in its original fitted green velvet case with an easel stand.
Several varieties of this mid-19th century chatelaine can be found in a book called "Chatelaines, Utilities to Glorious Extravagance" by Genevieve Cummins and Nerylla Taunton.
| |
Perfume Passage Publications... | |
Our Journal Issue No. 9, Glamour in a Case: American Compacts and their Makers, is now available. You won't want to miss learning about ladies compacts, manufacturers and histories of some of our favorite collectibles. Click on the cover for more information and to order one. | |
Perfume Passage Is On Social Media... | |
You will find everything on one site. Check out our Linktr.ee | |
You will find links to our past PassageWAY newsletters, video content such as the virtual tour by Erin Parsons, and much more! | |
|
Interested in visiting the collection?
- As a private residence, we are not open to the general public except through pre-arranged tours.
- Experiencing the collection is best when done in smaller groups, therefore we limit admission for an up close and intimate experience. See the link below for upcoming available dates.
- We also offer private group tours and many other events throughout the year.
| | |
Our mission is to preserve the history, beauty and artistry of perfume bottles, compacts, ephemera and related vanity items. Through education, outreach, and awareness of the Perfume Passage collection and library, our goal is to inspire art lovers, collectors, arts and curators to keep this history alive. | | | | |