Chaney: The Island Treasure I Learned About at 36,000 Feet
Jewelry Conversations at 36,000 feet.
Some wonderful jewelry conversations have happened at 36,000 feet, next to stinky lavs and rattling coffee pots, or squatting in the aisle while a passenger shares a story. I'm hoping this becomes a series, whether it's the history of jewelry from a certain culture or a ring passed down generation after generation, and I feel so lucky to hear them. Here's the first one, and I'm so excited to share it with you!
Chaney fragments. Rick Starr, for NPS.
On a recent trip I flew with a fellow flight attendant from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Somewhere between beverage service and landing, she asked if I had ever heard of chaney. I excitedly said, "Nope!" and looked at her, waiting for her to share. Twenty minutes later, after service during a little break, she was showing me these beautiful pieces, mostly made in gold, which I'm pretty sure is her favorite.
You could hear the excitement in her voice as she pulled up picture after picture of these cultural pieces. She was so proud of her culture and its history, and she lit up remembering finding chaney herself as a kid. Her passion was contagious! So I came home and dug in further.
So, what is chaney?
Chaney (say it "CHAY-nee") is the local name for shards of European china found in the soil and on the beaches of St. Croix. Most of it dates from about 1750 to 1900, when Denmark ran the island as a sugar colony. Denmark bought St. Croix from France in 1733 and sold it to the United States in 1917.
The name is interesting. It's a combination of two words, china and money. Generations of Crucian kids smoothed the edges and used the shards as play coins. My favorite part? Island kids turned broken dishes into treasure long before any jeweler did.
Rick Starr, for NPS.
How did it get there?
There was no trash pickup in plantation days, so broken dishes went out the kitchen window. Ships tossed broken dinnerware and dumped crockery ballast overboard, and St. Croix is famous for its shipwrecks too. Land chaney, dug up around old sugar estates, often keeps its glossy glaze. Ocean chaney is frosted soft by sand and surf, and it is the rarer find. Blue and white is most common, but greens, browns, reds, swirls, and even purple turn up too.
The deeper side of chaney
Chaney has a lot more history than you would initially think. Those plates and teacups arrived in a colonial plantation world built on the labor of enslaved Africans, and the kids who turned the shards into coins were, for generations, the children of enslaved and later emancipated families. Freedom came on July 3, 1848, when General Buddhoe led a march on Frederiksted, almost 15 years before the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States.
So when someone from St. Croix wears chaney, they are wearing something their ancestors picked up, reshaped, and made their own. Hearing my coworker talk about it, I began to realize why chaney means so much more to her than pretty jewelry.
Rick Starr, for NPS.
Through a silversmith’s eyes
Okay, the silversmith in me cannot help it. Every shard is a different shape and thickness, with a pattern you will never see again, so each setting has to be built around that one little piece. I have huge respect for the island jewelers who have been setting it in silver and gold for decades.
If you ever find yourself on St. Croix
Walk downtown Christiansted, buy from the Crucian artisans who grew up with chaney, and ask them about the pattern in your piece.
And to my fellow flight attendant, thank you for sharing a piece of home with me at 36,000 feet. This is exactly why I love this job and this craft. Silver, stone, and people who light up when they talk about where they come from.
CHEERS! -Kelly
Sources
- Jessica Priebe, “Colonial Trash to Island Treasure: The Chaney of St. Croix”, British Art Studies, Issue 21 (2021)
- National Park Service, Christiansted National Historic Site Exhibits
- St. Croix Landmarks Society, Transfer Day, March 31, 1917
- Beachcombing Magazine, “St. Croix’s Chaney”
- Go To St. Croix, “Chaney: The Unknown Treasure of St. Croix”
- My St. Croix, “St Croix Chaney”
- St. Croix Source, Emancipation Day coverage
- Wikipedia, Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands
Photos: National Park Service, Christiansted National Historic Site Museum Exhibits
