Châtelaine

Jewellery, Rococo, ca. 1730-1735

"Fashionable accessory for both men and women in the 18th century. It was made up of a series of bodies, four in this case, that made it flexible as a whole". "The last body comprises a flat, hexagonal case, on the inside of which small and delicate instruments can fit, for instance, for sewing and writing: scissors, needle, awl, marble plates, snuff spoon, knife and pencil.”

"This piece, that dates back to the mid-18th century, is what the documents of the period called équipage, in the sense of the complete equipment necessary for a certain activity". "Piece acquired in 2009 in the antiques market, it is preserved in its original case, covered with a material that was considered an authentic novelty at the time." Chatelâine, Model of the Month, November 2011.

Pinchbeck is a copper and zinc alloy in varying proportions. Different names have been used to refer to it over the course of history. One of these is pinchbeck, in tribute to Christopher Pinchbeck, inventor in 1720 of an alloy that looked like gold (copper 83% + zinc 17%). Hence the International Bibliography calls what we in Spain know as “latón” (brass), pinchbeck, particularly those pieces dating from throughout the 18th century. Similor, invented in 1729, was another of these alloys.

Iventory: MT-107620

Bibliography:

• Plaquette articulée pouvant supporter cinq breloques; il en existe en or, argent ou cuivre, du temps de Louis XV et Louis XVI. (Roger-Milès, L. Comment Discerner les Styles du VIIIe. au XIXe. siècle. Objects d´art et Curiosité. Paris: Edouard Rouveyre Ed., 1890)
• Similar châtelaine in the V & A Museum, with more pendants, one of which is decorated with the same masculine figure as the piece in our museum. It is dated between 1730 and 1735 and the material described is pinchbeck.
• HERRADÓN, M. Antonia. Châtealine. Modelo del mes de noviembre. Museo del Traje, 2011 Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte.