Chatelaine

Gilt metal chatelaine with a chased and textured hook plate applied with a monogram ‘EFR’. There are nine long chains with suspended implements including a scent bottle, a thimble case, scissors with sheathed blades, a paper knife, ivory writing tablets, a penknife, a button hook, a holder for beeswax, a pincushion and a gold repoussé needle-case, The needle case has a French import mark and incomplete poinçon with one initial ‘L’ visible. The penknife has a steel blade marked ‘VR’, with a Royal Crown between the letters and ‘F West St. James’s Street’.
These large chatelaines became fashionable in the 1840s and showpiece examples were exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, notably by Joseph Banks of Durham and J.J. Thornhill. One of Banks’s chatelaines, M.10-1971, is in the V&A’s collection. A chatelaine by J.J. Thornhill appears in ‘Art Journal’ illustrated catalogue, 1851, 40. The penknife with this chatelaine bears the mark of Fitzmaurice West of St. James’s Street, cutlers by appointment to the royal family, like both the above firms. West also made other chatelaines and there is a comparable example in the Hull Grundy Gift to the British Museum, no HG166.