made of brown velvet; beads (3 sizes: 12, 10, 8 size seed beads in white, greasy green, greasy royal blue, greasy gold, transparent (clear, raspberry); opaque (2 shades of dusty rose; turquoise); inexpensive cotton binding used around edge; lining of coarse linen; inexpensive cotton backing on flap.;

appliqued beadwork, similar to "lazy stitch", cardboard backing for beadwork visible between velveteen outer surface and inexpensive dark brown cotton backing on flap

Ruth Phillips: This was a very popular style of bag made for sale to tourists at Niagara Falls and other resorts by women at Tuscarora and other Haudenosaunee communities. The shape of the bag was copied from the 'chatelaine' style worn at the waist by Victorian women. The Haudenosaunee version and beadwork were admired by non-Native women and a pattern for imitating it was published in a British woman's magazine in 1857 (Phllips 1998: 218-219) There are also a number of 19th-century photographs and cartes de visite that show non-Native women wearing them, indicating that they were valued and used for formal dress. (Biron 2006: 34-37)
(Please note that the term Haudenosaunee is now being replaced by Onkwehonwe. July 23, 2009).

;;third quarter of the 19th c

Ruth B. Phillips, Trading Identities: The souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900, Seattle: University of Washington press, 1998. Gerry Biron, Made of Thunder, Made of Glass: American Indian Beadwork of the Northeast, Saxtons River, VT, 2006

Unknown Haudenosaunee artist, chatelaine bag. Currently at National Museums Scotland, A.1984.68. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007 in which the author took part; GRASAC item id 24829.

9 Apr 2007 Ruth Phillips, On-site researchers: Cory Willmott, Heidi Bohaker, Laura Peers, Ruth Phillips, Keith Jamieson, Alan Corbiere, Henrietta Lidchi, Robert Storrie, Chantal Knowles, Brenda McGoff