Chinese Silver Vinaigrettes

A typical Chinese vinaigrette, enlarged to show detail.

Chinese artists often achieved delightful effects when working in miniature. One of my favorite collections of Chinese objects is the charming tiny vinaigrettes made of delicate filigree. These small openwork containers, filled with perfumed inserts, were meant to hang on the clothes when walking, rendering surrounding odors less offensive. Sizes vary, but a typical rectangular one will be about 1.5 inches long.

It is difficult to know what name to call these—vinaigrette, pomander, sachet, or censer. Censers are for burning incense, and typically of a larger size. Sachets are usually made of cloth, and in fact their Chinese equivalent is very common. Pomander perhaps is the closest, but the name can refer to the perfume itself, and often pomanders are spherical or larger than personal size.

I prefer the term vinaigrette because these most closely resemble the Western silver vinaigrettes which were used for a similar purpose. These usually contained ammonia salts and possibly aromatic vinegars in addition to perfume, so they were kept closed and only used as needed to revive the wearer in days when fainting spells as well as horrid odors were common. The Chinese version contained only perfume and they were made of an openwork material so the perfume could diffuse itself around the person, or could be lifted for more concentrated inhaling.

This very nice 1827 example of an English vinaigrette by John Betteridge of Birmingham, from Gilai Collectibles shows the object from several angles.

Here is another typical English vinaigrette from 1844-5 by William and Edward Turnpenny, also of Birmingham, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In general, Chinese silver vinaigrettes are made in two halves, which somehow hinge or fit together in order to contain the perfumed material, ordinarily a small pad made of cloth which can be charged with perfume or fragrant oil, whose scent can escape through the fine piercings. Some are made as a complete box, which can be opened at the top or by a sliding panel at the side. Since these sliding panels weren’t anchored to the main body, often they are missing today.

This is the reverse side of the vinaigrette at the top of the post.

A rare survival of the original fragrance packet, which can be seen through the filigree as a red object.

  

A more elaborate round example with blue enameling and five bats surrounding a longevity symbol. You can see where more ornaments were once attached.

A rather plain example, except that the filigree is exceptionally well planned.

Most of the decoration on Chinese vinaigrettes falls into two categories—either floral/natural scenes, or vignettes from Chinese history and mythology. Either of these patterns allows for a lot of detail in the decoration, as well as small recessed spaces that can be punched or cut out for the filigree.

A naturalistic pattern with a deer among foliage.

A rather crude example, with poorly cut filigree and minimal repousse, although a nicely composed design.

Usually I am unclear which story is being represented, but this is definitely the Legend of the White Snake, shown here in the Leifeng Pagoda.

A nicely composed scene with three bearded gods.

A pattern reminiscent of Art Nouveau, with flowers and an insect.

Reverse of the above, with slightly surreal round flowers—possibly chrysanthemums or roses?

Virtually all Chinese vinaigrettes were meant to hang from the clothing. Usually the top and bottom panels were pierced to allow attachment of chains or cords so they could be hung from the belt with an array of other lucky charms and useful objects such as needle cases or seal holders.

However, many of the silver ones were used as the centerpieces for chatelaines, which were small assortments of useful objects bound together into one piece of jewelry, kind of like an early concept of the Swiss Army knife. Western chatelaines contained keys, pencils, notebooks, pin-cushions, watches, magnifying glasses, and so forth and were used by women and pinned on the chest or waist like a brooch. Chinese chatelaines, on the other hand, contained personal implements like tweezers, ear-picks, tongue scrapers, nail cleaners, etc. and were likely suspended from the belt like the other hanging charms.

It is difficult to photograph chatelaines, showing both the long chain sections and the delicate workmanship of the implements and ornaments. This simple example has three tools--an ear pick, tweezers, and a nail pick.

This shows more detail of how a vinaigrette was used as the center of a chatelaine, with suspension chain above and three tools hanging below.

This more elaborate chatelaine has a spreader piece below the vinaigrette, and five tools: nail pick, knife, tongue scraper, tweezers. and ear pick.

A vase of flowers form the central motif here, and the bell shows how ornaments other than tools could be attached to a chatelaine.

Chinese vinaigrettes come in a large variety of shapes. My favorites are the rectangular ones, but they can be found in circular, cylindrical, spherical, octagonal, cartouche, and irregular shapes, among many others. They are also sometimes made as articulated fish or insects, with moving parts, but those I have seen of this type always seemed to be of recent manufacture. The round ones were particularly well suited to be used in chatelaines, and in slightly larger sizes could be made into hatpins or other jewelry.

 

An unusual key-hole shaped example, heavy for its size.

An octagonal silver vinaigrette.

Reverse of the above.

These round vinaigrettes are typically smaller, about one inch in diameter, and the attachment loops for chains, tools, or other ornaments are visible.

I had made a display of these silver vinaigrettes in my apartment, but Taipei’s polluted and corrosive are tarnished them a difficult-to-remove black, so I had to put them away. There are many small collectibles here, but vinaigrettes particularly appeal to me, which is ironic since I cannot tolerate (and am perhaps allergic to) perfume. There is so much variety that it is difficult to pick just one, but let me know if you have a favorite example or type.

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Note: All of the Chinese vinaigrettes shown (except for the English examples) are in the collection of the author, as are the above photos.