c.1820-30 French Watch Key

A c. 1820-30 French Bourbon Restoration period watch key, of chased 18k gold, the pendant arms in the form of stylized cornucopia, with an unusual double-sided setting of faceted chalcedony and cabochon green paste. The original steel key stem has been preserved. A cornucopia watch key from the same period is illustrated on p. 79 of “Bijoux des deux Empires 1804-1870” by Claudette Joannis. Another is in the collection of the Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau (M.M.40.47.4866). Pre-1850 watches had key-wind and key-set movements; to wind and set the time, it was necessary to fit a key over the arbor and manually turn the associated mainsprings, wheels, and hands. Until the commercialization of stem-wind watches in the mid-19th c., a watch key was essential to the function and utilization of a watch, and thus an indispensable element of watch chain fobs.

A shift in men’s fashion in the early 19th c. saw watches relocating from breech pockets to waistcoat pockets. This new style increased the visibility of a pocket watch ensemble, with the watch chain snaking over the waistcoat to be secured via button hole by dangling fobs. Increased visibility brought an element of exhibitionism and ‘flirtation’ to the wearing and appearance of fobs. 1820-30s watch keys and fobs became elaborate in size and design, with the finest examples in beautifully chased gold and set with stones or miniature work. In France, the cluster of fobs—which would include the watch key, a seal, and perhaps a lucky charm—became known as “charivari” (a type of noisy mock serenade) in reference to their clanging noise. While fobs of a decade prior may have weighed under 10 grams, Restoration era counterparts were large and hefty: “One often sees watch chains with merely two seals and a key; but they are so bulky that, on the thigh, they alone form a greater bundle than the fifteen or twenty charms which were worn ten or fifteen years ago. The current fad is for the monumental” (from an 1820 Paris journal, quoted on p. 154 in Henri Vever’s French Jewellery of the Nineteenth Century).