The Chatelaine: a Victorian-era multitool for women

[Ombudsman]

Found this interesting article about The Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women   

Before women carried purses, they often relied on chatelaines to keep an array of miniature accessories close at hand.


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.

They even made fun of them at those times.. 

[nuphoria]

That's an awfully fancy one!

Does the name apply to similar little sewing tools with various attachments too?

[Agonistes]

some of these things were amazing.  my grandmother gave me a chatelaine clip once.

this one is one of my favorites, via google: 

[nuphoria]

Beautiful

[Threeme2189]

Those look very nice.
But didn't they get tangled up all the time?

Sent from my Mother Smurfing phone using TrashaTalk II

[firiki]

Thanks for the folklore lesson!

[Nhoj]

Those look very nice.
But didn't they get tangled up all the time?

Sent from my Mother Smurfing phone using TrashaTalk II

That is a good point! A little necro but cool topic

[Agonistes]

lying flat (even hanging they still lie kinda flat) on a voluminous skirt like that, they seem to be inclined to tangle less.


a ribbon was also used, probably if you couldn't afford all that silver. smaller ribbons dangled various sewing implements, usually, because you could put needles in it, and pins.  my mother made herself one years ago from a pattern she found somewhere; it hung around her neck and both ends came down the front of her.  she didn't use it much but it was nice, and eventually she robbed all the tools off it to put back in the sewing box, which she seemed to prefer.

[J-sews]

Neat bit of history here, sorry I missed it earlier. I've seen items for sale before that were listed as having been from chatelaines, but I guess I never actually knew what a chatelaine was. Thanks!

[Agonistes]

first time i heard one mentioned was in an oscar wilde play; 'mrs warren's profession.'


quote:

VIVIE [striding to the gate and opening it for him] Come in, Mr Praed.
[He comes in]. Glad to see you. [She proffers her hand and takes his
with a resolute and hearty grip. She is an attractive specimen of the
sensible, able, highly-educated young middle-class Englishwoman. Age 22.
Prompt, strong, confident, self-possessed. Plain business-like dress,
but not dowdy. She wears a chatelaine at her belt, with a fountain pen
and a paper knife among its pendants].

end quote.


my norton anthology had a footnote as to what a chatelaine was, and why it would have such cool pendants.  i was intrigued, because until i saw an 'uncut' copy of a book of aristotle's work at an antique shop i had no idea why anyone would carry a 'paper knife,' or what THAT was, either.  apparently letter openers used to also be used cut the folds in new book's pages that were bound in quarter-pages.

[Metropolicity]

Now THAT'S a dangler!

[Ombudsman]

Indeed ! 

[Lynn LeFey]

Olde Timey EDC.