Chain styles, explained

A gold chain from a Suffolk field

In November 1992 a metal detectorist, Eric Lawes, reported a find in the parish of Hoxne, in Suffolk. It turned out to be the richest treasure ever found from Roman Britain: around 15,000 coins, buried for safety as Roman rule over Britain came to an end, and with them many other precious things, jewellery among them.

Among it was a body chain. Four gold chains are joined so that they pass over the shoulders and under the arms, crossing at the front and the back. At the back they meet at a gold coin of the emperor Gratian, and at the front at a setting of an amethyst ringed with garnets. The British Museum, which holds it, thinks it was worn over a thin garment by a slender woman or a girl.

What makes it interesting here is how the museum describes the chains themselves. They are of loop-in-loop construction, joined side by side to make a thick, flat strap rather than a round chain. In other words, the museum describes the chain by its links: their shape, and how each one joins the next. More than sixteen centuries later, that is still the whole secret of chain styles.

How a chain is put together

A chain is a series of rings or links, usually of metal, joined to one another. Traditionally each link is a short piece of wire bent into shape with its ends soldered together. Most chains today are made by machine, though the finest can still have hand-made links.

Two things decide what a chain looks like. The first is the shape of the link: round, oval, long, square, flattened or twisted. The second is how the links join: one through the next in a simple line, or several at a time, so that the links weave into a rope, a tube or a plait.

One small detail separates two of the most common chains. In a trace chain, each oval link sits at right angles to its neighbours, so the chain won't lie flat when you stretch it out. In a curb chain the links are twisted so that the whole chain lies flat. Pick up two chains and lay them on a table, and you can often tell which is which at once.

The names are less fixed than they look. A jewellery dictionary notes that many named styles are being replaced by manufacturers' design numbers, and the same chain can be sold under two or three names. Go by the links, not the label.

The classic link chains

These are the chains made of separate, visible links, the kind you can count. They are the workhorses of jewellery, and most of them come in every weight from a fine thread to a heavy statement chain.

• Trace. Plain round or oval links of equal size, each turned at right angles to the next. The simplest chain there is, and in fine weights one of the most delicate. Also called cable chain or link chain.
• Belcher. A close relation of the trace, made of broad round or D-shaped links, all the same size. It has a bolder, more substantial look. In America it is usually called a rolo chain. Even the name is argued over: one story credits a bare-knuckle boxer, Jem Belcher, another Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, and nobody has settled it.
• Anchor. A confusing one, because it means two things. Some makers use it for a heavier trace chain, modelled on dockyard chains. Others use it for links with a bar across the middle of each oval, a style also sold as marina or mariner chain.
• Paperclip. Long, open oval links that look like a row of paperclips. It is usually grouped with the trace chains.
• Fetter. Named after the chains once used to shackle the feet. Long links alternate with a group of short ones, and if each group has three, it is called fetter and three.
• Curb. Uniform links twisted so they lie flat against the skin. It catches the light well, especially when diamond-cut, which means the outer faces have been cut flat to sparkle. Fine curb chains are a common choice for pendants, and heavy ones are a classic men's chain. In French it is a gourmette.
• Cuban. A cousin of the curb with rounder, bolder links set closer together.
• Figaro. A chain of flattened links with a rhythm to it: two or three short links, then one long one, repeated. It is usually said to come from Italy.
• Satellite. A fine chain with small beads spaced evenly along it. It is the beads, not the links, that you notice.

Ropes, boxes and snakes

Join each link to more than one neighbour, or shape the links so they nest tightly together, and the chain stops looking like a row of rings. It becomes a cord, a tube or a plait.

• Rope. A chain in which two or more links are attached to each neighbour, so the links spiral like the twist of a rope. It is textured and sparkly from every angle. A looser version made of thinner rings in groups of four is called a Prince of Wales chain.
• Singapore. Like a curb, but with flattened links twisted like a rope, so it ripples and catches the light as it moves.
• Box. Square links that make a neat, geometric, four-sided chain. It is also sold as Venetian chain.
• Snake. Curved plates fitted so tightly together that they form a smooth, flexible tube with a subtle zig-zag texture, like a snake's skin. You can't see the individual links at all.
• Spiga or wheat. Links interlocked so closely that the chain looks plaited, like an ear of wheat. "Spiga" comes from the word for an ear of wheat.
• Herringbone. Flat links laid in a row like the bones of a fish, so the chain lies flat on the neck like a ribbon of metal. Beautiful, and the most delicate chain in this guide.
• Ball or bead. Small metal balls threaded along a fine wire, joined with a little connector. Simple and light.

British and American names

British jewellers and suppliers talk about trace and belcher chains. American guides call the same two chains cable and rolo. Neither is wrong. Here are the names you are most likely to meet for each style.

If a description uses a name you don't recognise, look at the photograph and ask the two questions from the start of this guide: what shape are the links, and how do they join?

Choosing a chain for a pendant

A pendant asks two things of a chain: that it is strong enough to carry the weight, and that it doesn't fight the pendant for attention. Chain makers and suppliers broadly agree on the pairings below.

Strength, kinks and knots

It would be tidy to rank every chain from strongest to weakest, but we found no independent test that does, and the same style can be made in a fine wire or a heavy one. What the trade does agree on is narrower.

• Open-link chains are the easiest to live with. Belcher, rope and wider curb chains are the ones suppliers describe as sturdy, and belcher in particular as good at carrying weight. A rope chain doesn't easily kink.
• Snake chains can kink, and they are harder to repair than open-link chains, because there are no separate links to replace.
• Herringbone is the most delicate. Its flat links can kink or twist if handled roughly, and once a link is bent too far it can't be repaired without leaving a mark.

Knots are a different matter from kinks, and every fine chain can knot. Fasten chains before you put them away, and store them flat or hanging, one to a compartment. If you wear several at once, our guide to layering necklaces has more on keeping them apart, and clasp types explained covers the fastenings.

Read the links

The body chain from Hoxne has no trade name. Nobody calls it a belcher or a rope. The museum simply says what it is: loop-in-loop chains, joined side by side into a flat strap. That is still the best way to look at any chain. Ignore the label for a moment, look at the links, see how they meet, and you will know what you are holding, and how it will wear.