Heraldic Chatelaine

Designer François-Desiré Froment-Meurice (French (Paris), 1802-1855)

Place of OriginFrance

Dateabout 1845-1848

DimensionsL: 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm)

Mediumgold, silver, enamel, set with garnets, pearls, and malachite

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, by exchange

Object number

2007.14

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 34, Jewelry Gallery

Label TextMedieval art emerged as the preferred inspiration in French jewelry from the 1830s on. Color was introduced through the use of enamel, semi-precious stones, and gems. Romantic jewelry with scenes of courtly love and feudal life was one of the specialties of François-Desiré Froment-Meurice, proprietor of France’s most influential and respected jewelry workshop at the time. A very fashionable accessory in the first half of the 19th-century, a chatelaine is a decorative belt hook or clasp with suspended chains mounted with useful household implements. This example, the grandest and most complete by Froment-Meurice in existence today, was only known from drawings until the Museum acquired it in 2007. The clasp and seal bear the joint arms of the French Belbeuf family of Normandy and the de Pottère family of Gand above the device Floreat Semper [Always flourish]. Here prominent Renaissance rulers (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his parents on the malachite plaques) are combined with figures from Romantic literature. Ill-fated lovers Paolo and Francesca from Dante’s Inferno are shown on the central silver plaque. Dante and his muse Beatrice are on the vinaigrette (with compartments for a sponge soaked with perfume or smelling salts); busts of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere embellish the suspended key;and the seal sports busts of Charles V’s children Philip, Mary, and Joanna.Published ReferencesHenri Vever, La Bijouterie Française au XIX siecle (1800-1900), Paris, 1908, p. 179 (ill.).

Kunstgewerbe zwischen Biedermeier und Jugendstil, Munich, 1981, fig. 347.

Vom zweiten Kaiserreich zur Belle Epoque, Munich: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1989, p. 86, no. 4.

Parallel in Musée d'Arts Décoratifs, Paris: Barbara Mundt, Historismus.

Christie's, Amsterdam, 4 June 2002, lot 304.

Alcouffe, Daniel, Marc Bascou et al., Trésors d'Argent: Les Froment-Meurice, Paris, Paris musees, 2003, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 241, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryParis, Musée de la Vie Romantique, 4 February - 15 June, 2003.Comparative ReferencesSee also Parallel in Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel, from 1850: Pariser Schmuck.