What Is a Sautoir?

A sautoir is a very long necklace, often a fine chain or strand of pearls, typically ending in a tassel, pendant or knotted drop, worn hanging well below the throat and closely associated with the fashionable silhouette of the 1920s.

What Is a Sautoir?

The defining feature of a sautoir is its length: far longer than a choker or a standard chain necklace, a sautoir was designed to hang down over the chest and, in its most fashionable Art Deco form, well past the waist. The chain or strand typically terminates in a decorative element - a tassel, a single drop, a knotted fringe - rather than simply stopping at a clasp, and some sautoirs were long enough to be knotted partway down, wrapped around the neck more than once, or looped to vary the effect.

How to Recognise It

Look first at length: a sautoir hangs well below the natural necklace line, often reaching the waist or lower, in clear contrast to a shorter necklace such as a lavalier or choker. A tasselled, knotted or pendant-drop terminus is a strong further indicator, since a sautoir was rarely designed simply to close with a plain clasp at the back of the neck the way a shorter necklace typically does.

When Was It Worn?

Long chains called sautoirs were worn in the 19th century, but the sautoir reached its greatest fashionable prominence through the 1920s, worn for both formal and fashionable daytime occasions as part of the era’s broader taste for long, draping jewellery.

Origins

The sautoir grew out of the early 20th-century taste for long pearl and chain necklaces already visible in Edwardian dress, but its real prominence dates to the 1920s, when the dropped-waist, relatively flat-fronted silhouette of the period created an obvious opportunity for a single long strand of pearls or a fine chain to become a dominant decorative element rather than a secondary accessory.

How It Changed Over Time

Early sautoirs of the 1900s and 1910s tended toward the lighter, more delicate garland-style chains typical of Edwardian jewellery, often ending in a single small drop not unlike an elongated lavalier. As fashion moved through the 1910s and into the 1920s, the sautoir grew both longer and bolder, embracing the geometric motifs, tasselled termini and calibré-cut coloured stones characteristic of Art Deco design. A long single strand suited the era’s dropped-waist, boyish silhouette far better than a shorter necklace would have, since it could echo and extend the vertical line of a flat-fronted dress rather than sitting awkwardly across a bodice designed with little emphasis at the natural waist.

Materials

Pearls, both natural and, increasingly through the 1920s, cultured, were a defining sautoir material, strung in long single strands sometimes finished with a tasselled or gem-set terminus. Fine chains in platinum or gold were equally characteristic, often interspersed with small diamond or coloured-stone stations along their length. Long strands of coloured beads or hardstones also appeared in less costly versions of the style.

Construction

A sautoir is built either as a strung strand (most often pearls) or as a fine linked chain, considerably longer than a standard necklace, terminating in a decorative element such as a tassel, a single pendant drop, or a knotted fringe rather than closing plainly at the back of the neck. Some examples include a small clasp or connector partway along their length, allowing the wearer to shorten the piece or wear it doubled.

How It Was Worn

Worn hanging loose over the chest and often well past the waist, sometimes knotted partway down or wrapped around the neck more than once for a shorter, layered effect, in clear contrast to the snugly fitted lavalier or choker.

Who Wore It?

The sautoir was women’s fashionable jewellery, worn across a broad social range from the finest platinum-and-diamond or natural pearl versions to more affordable chain and glass-bead versions that reproduced the same long, draping silhouette.

Notable Variations

• Negligee Necklace - a shorter, asymmetric-drop necklace from the earlier Edwardian period, distinct from the much longer sautoir.
• Tasselled sautoir - a sautoir ending in a decorative fringe or tassel rather than a single drop.
• Pearl sautoir - a long single strand of pearls, one of the most characteristic 1920s forms.

Similar Jewellery

A sautoir is most easily confused with a rivière necklace or a plain long chain, but the rivière is a shorter, close-fitting continuous line of individually set stones rather than a long draping strand, and a plain chain typically lacks the sautoir’s characteristic tasselled or pendant terminus. It is also distinct from the much shorter lavalier necklace, which sits close to the throat rather than hanging low.

Examples in Museum Collections

• Sautoir, c.1910. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003.350.1. Seed pearls and horsehair with yellow and white gold, 132 cm long - the extreme length that defines the form.
• Necklace or sautoir, probably French, c.1920. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, M.35-1983. Seed pearls, diamonds and platinum, ending in tassels (one now missing).
• Sautoir, Wiener Werkstätte, c.1920. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, M.39-2022. A long braided rope of woven glass beads ending in a bell-shaped terminal: the colourful, less costly version of the 1920s sautoir.