Saturday freebie time

Went thrift store shopping earlier in the week. First time in ages. Didn't find much at the one store I stopped in, just a couple cute cream pitchers. Plan to turn them into pincushions. Have been wasting time on internet looking for mother of pearl sewing accessories at prices I can afford. Vintage sewing tools are very collectible and pricey. Have bids in on a couple items, including an antique Chinese needleholder of carved bone which would go on my vintage bone/celluloid (sometimes hard to tell which) chatelaine. I rescued it at an antique fair in Richmond while I was in grad school. It was in bad shape and I don't think anyone gave it more than a glance or had any idea what it was. The vendor sure didn't. Wish I had taken a photo of it before I started refurbishing. When I found it, it was just a medium (4") "finger" ring with 3 "chains" attached by rapidly disintegrating red silk ribbon. The outer two chains were of bone rings woven together, one with a bodkin attached, the other with an awl. The middle chain was of fancy cut pieces. The closest pictures I can find of what it would have looked like in good condition are these and mine was configured differently. Still it will give you some idea of what the ribbon woven chains were like. These are all examples of sewing chatelaines ordinary people might have owned in the 1920s - 1940s and perhaps even later in places like Shaker communities. Later I'll tell and show you what I did with my salvaged chatelaine pieces.

With all the steampunk stuff we have been seeing in recent years, you might have the idea that chatelaines were just a Victorian thing but they date back further in history and are still in use in places around the world today. Whatever the time period, the chatelaine was a way to gather and carry along useful items. In the original French, the word meant keeper of a castle and later, the woman in charge of a large house. Today it means:
A chatelaine is a decorative belt hook or clasp worn at the waist with a series of chains suspended from it. Each chain is mounted with useful household appendages such as scissors, thimbles, watches, keys, vinaigrette, and household seals. Wikipedia. There are chatelaines with a mix of item categories and chatelaines devoted to a pqrticular type of item, such as the sewing chatelaines I talked about above. I find them fascinating and can spend hours looking at the various kinds.


But for now, Let us get back to our ongoing digital series, Summer Gardens

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tcxc8ezsr6t022u/ws_SummerGardens_9.zip?dl=0