A chatelaine is usually a brooch or some such item with a chain
attached to an item of utilitarian function. like a watch. However.
in a modern art-deco sense. there are chatelaines that serve no
pragmatic functions at all. They exist for the sake of decorative fun
and nothing else.
From the 1920’s through the 1950’s chatelaines were more often than
not amusing as well as decorative. It was not uncommon back then.
that when one end had gone missing. the entire household would join
in on the hunt for that missing end for hours till it was found. No
devastation could be greater --I imagine–for a missing end of a
chatelaine to remain missing.
It was not implausible in the thinking amongst those that know these
things-- members of the hoi-polloi are not included here–that a pin
or two might be found scattered about. with no chains attached. and
with no inkling on the parts of the finders of the pins. that they
were once connected to form a chatelaine of no mean beauty.
But better than beauty. is oblique beauty. It is beauty that only
bears a modernistic and distant resemblance to that which it is
supposed to represent. And the further away it is from that which it
is supposed to be. the more we tend to like it. Parenthetically
speaking here. I am the leader of the pack when it comes to liking
things that vaguely and yet only somewhat accurately represent that
which they’re supposed to represent. A little help in un-muddling
this mish-mash of language here folks wouldn’t hurt. Alas. these are
the thoughts that torment my soul when the rest of the world is busy
having fun.
Strings of birds, and hearts and keys, and bulls and toreadors, and
cupids and arrows, and dogs and walkers … these are only a few
examples of fun type chatelaines that date back to the Art Deco
period of the early 1900’s.
Which brings us. by way of the stealthiest of segues… to a walker
and his dog. The dog is made of ridged-glass geometrically formed to
look like baguettes. The man has an all-navette body and a
fruit-salad head. All materials… sadly. are unknown. The dog is
2-1/8" long. The man is 2-1/2" long.
This was clearly made during a time when there were no
pooper-scoopers or laws about picking up your pet’s droppings with
dung-rags or their equivalents. Never this new business about DNA
samplings they’re talking about these days in order to identify the
nefarious scamps that left the dog-doo there where it was dropped.
It’s getting a little nuts out there folks. Methinks we’re going to
slowly civilize ourselves right out of existence.
Anyway. it’s time for the ol’ look-see. An Art Deco dog and his
walker. worth in 1930 $100.00. Go. You know where by now. To my home
page at tyler-adam.com… lower left side of menu (for now)… click
on Tidbits. and voila.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch
you all next week. Benjamin Mark