Versailles

A Louis XIV-period sewing necessaire, this pendant preserves the memory of an object both utilitarian and ornamental.

At once a jewel, a belt accessory, and at times suspended from a lady’s small bag or scarf according to the shifts of fashion, the chatelaine is one of the most singular objects in the history of dress. Highly fashionable throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it brought together, on a system of chains, a series of small objects intended for the necessities of daily life.

Yet its function extended far beyond use. Women would compose and personalise their own chatelaines, turning this assemblage into a visible sign of belonging, distinction and authority. As a receptacle of its owner’s social rank, it expressed hierarchy as much as it adorned it.

To wear a chatelaine was therefore to claim a form of power: the power exercised within the household or at court, depending on the rank of the woman who wore it. The great craftsmen of the period were regularly commissioned to create original and sumptuous versions, worthy of its social as well as decorative function.

A fragment of domestic and worldly power now comes to rest against the skin.
Versailles is a Protection jewel Protection.