When you think about the fact that for centuries chains were painstakingly handcrafted, link by link, it’s all the more amazing to see a gold Minoan earring, dated to the 17th century B.C. in which delicate charms, shaped like owls and disks, are connected to an elaborate central disk by fine gold chains.

Gold chains with pendants were found at Dashur in the tomb of Princess Khnumet, who lived during Egypt’s 12th Dynasty (c.1991-1786 B.C.) Khnumet’s taste in jewelry seems surprisingly contemporary. One delicate gold rope has a butterfly made of gold wire hanging from it. Two granulated gold star-shaped pendants hang from another, and the pendants on a third gold chain are described as “formalized flies,” which actually look like upside-down gold hearts.

Although the earliest chains were made of simple links, woven chains have been found that date back to pre-Roman times. According to Tait, during the Hellenistic Age (325 B.C.-27 B.C.), gold became more available in Greece, “because of the intensive mining operations in Thrace, initiated by Phillip II, but mostly from the dissemination of the captured Persian treasures. The jewelry in Greece began to take on new forms, incorporating Asian and Egyptian motifs. Among the pieces that have survived from this age is a 2nd-century B.C. necklace from Taormina, Sicily. Its pendant, an inverted gold crescent decorated with filigree and granulation and set with lustrous red garnets, is suspended from a graceful woven gold chain.

The Romans also used woven gold chain in their jewelry. A treasure from the 1st century A.D. is an exquisite necklace, its delicate woven gold chain linked to cabochon garnets, also set in gold.

Chains continued to be meticulously made by hand throughout the Middle Ages. The Metropolitan Museum of New York has a pair of Frankish fibulae (brooches) dating to the 7th century A.D. in the form of gold-plated birds (possibly worn for luck), that are connected by a gold chain.

Much of what we know about jewelry and how it was worn in earlier times comes from paintings. Portraits of the once rich and famous give us a good idea of the jewelry of the times, or least what was worn by the upper classes. A fascinating Flemish painting by Petrus Christus, dated 1544) shows a goldsmith in his shop, with a wealthy young couple behind him.

But this isn’t just any goldsmith, the clue being the delicate halo around his cap. He is Saint Eligius, the patron saint of goldsmiths and jewelers, and he’s shown holding a pair of scales, preparing to weigh a gold ring, which some scholars say will be used in the wedding. What’s interesting, for purposes of this article, is the heavy and obviously expensive gold chain that the young man behind him wears so casually around his neck.

In Jewelry, a volume in the Smithsonian Illustrated Library of Antiques, Marie-Louise d’Otrange Mastai, explains that during the sixteenth century certain styles of jewelry became strongly connected to certain regions. Wearing gold chains became the trend in Germany, where the chains were valued not only for suspending pendants but were considered important in their own right. As an example, she cites this portrait:

Painted by Hans Krell, about 1530, it shows Princess Emilia of Saxony in her betrothal finery, wearing three neck chains beneath a choker. The chains are quite obviously a display of wealth and status.

Italy had a slightly different take on wearing chains if the woman in the sixteenth-century painting “A Lady as Lucretia” by Lorenzo Lotto is typical:

The young noblewoman is wearing a jeweled pendant suspended from a tangle of gold chains that are tucked into the bodice of her dress.

In Metropolitan Jewelry, a beautiful book which examines jewelry in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sophie McConnell writes: “One of the widespread fashions of the early sixteenth century was the wearing of large, heavy chains. In England Henry VIII gave them as presents to ambassadors and as rewards to men who had rendered a service to the crown. In Germany and Flanders, however, they were mostly worn by women”.

In this painting by Luger Tom Ring the Younger (German, 1522-84):

McConnell explains that the mother and daughter (to the right of Jesus) are dressed piously yet fashionably, each

 wearing a large, and undoubtedly heavy, gold chain. The daughter (far right) wears not only the long chain but a jeweled pendant suspended from another more ornate open-link chain around her throat.

In Hans Brosamer’s dour portrait “Katharina Merian” (painted in Germany, mid-sixteenth century), the subject wearsa necklace whose gold chain is made of flat circular links, so simple that the necklace almost looks contemporary. Of course, the pendant is pure elaborate Renaissance.

As for Henry VIII, he was often depicted wearing both a jeweled collar that spans his shoulders, as well as chain suspending a jeweled pendant, as in this painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.

One of the more distinctive Renaissance styles, popular in the 16th century and on through the 19th, is what I’ve come to think of as “suspension” pendants. These were rather large, y elaborate pendants, suspended on either end from chains (usually open link) that would then meet above the pendant and be connected, by a ring or a jewel.

Tait explains: “Such huge pendants were intended to be worn over rich brocades, particularly for pinning on high up on stiff sleeves so that the jewels were free to swing, catching the light as they moved.” While a great deal of medieval and Renaissance jewelry had religious themes, these large suspended pendants often depicted fantastical creatures made of gold, enamel, and gems. Here’s a delightful 17th-century emerald dragon, with extraordinary front-and-back views, from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Mythical themes were also popular. The Cooper-Hewett has a suspended pendant dated to late sixteenth-early seventeenth century that shows a tiny enameled Europa being borne off by almost equally tiny bull. Another well-known pendant in this style depicts Venus and Cupid sitting on the back of an enameled sea monster. The pendant is suspended by two gold chains; one connects to the sea monster’s back fin, the other to his little gold crown. Venus and her son, charmingly nude, are encircled by a golden scarf. This pendant, which currently resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, dates back to the end of the 16th century.

Of course, not everyone in Europe was weighted down with heavy gold and extravagant gems. Though long chains began to go out of fashion in the early 1600s during the reign of James I, chainsthemselves never really disappeared. Even commoners continued to wear chains, sometimes wrapped twice around the wrist as a bracelet. In 1912, a collection of jewelry -thought to have been part of a jeweler’s stock – was found underneath the floorboards of a house in Cheapside, London. Called the Cheapside Hoard, these items are thought to have been the sort of jewelry worn by lesser nobility and the families of wealthy merchants during the Jacobean and Edwardian eras. The collection, currently split among the British Museum, the Museum of London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Guildhall Museum, features absolutely lovely jewels. In addition to rings, earrings, and pendants, there are a number of fine chain necklaces, many of them alternating delicate gold links with enamel flowers, pearls, or cabochon and faceted gems:

Chains remained popular in Europe during the nineteenth century. In 1823, the great French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted this portrait of Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc:

Madame Leblanc was part of Napoleon’s court, where she served as lady-in-waiting to his sister, the grand duchess of Tuscany. The portrait shows her wearing a long golden chain necklace. A watch is suspended from it and attached to her belt

In medieval times, a châtelaine was the mistress of the castle, the woman who held all the keys. This French word also became the term used to describe what was in the 18th century “the most predominant type of jewelry worn during the daytime”. It consisted of three main parts: an ornamental hook-plate that was attached to the belt, a number of chains affixed to the plate, and objects attached to the dangling ends of the each chain. Almost anything essential might be found attached to these short chains, including: scissors, keys, thimble and needle cases, pomanders, household notebooks in metal cases, tape measures, compasses, and pen knives.

Sometimes a cameo or charm was also suspended from the chains, which could number as many as nine. As they were extremely practical items, châtelaines were worn by both men and women, though the men’s version was longer and tended to be worn suspended from the thigh. The châtelaine was the equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife, long before the Swiss Army Knife came into vogue.

The popularity of the châtelaine faded in the 1830s, but their descendents—charm bracelets—are still with us. Initially popular in England, during the Victorian age, charm bracelets allowed women to collect charms—often mementos or souvenirs– and attach them to sterling silver or gold chain bracelets. The bracelets become far more elaborate in the twentieth century with fancy woven chains and heavy jeweled and enameled charms. Watches, of course, were often suspended from chains, at least until 1896 when the term wristwatch was coined. The Victorian festoon necklace, which came into vogue in the late 1800s, featured graceful swags of chain, looping from a central pendant and connecting to other gems or the “main” chain. Dainty wrist chains were also worn during the Victorian era to tighten sleeve ruffles.

Another trend in wearing chains was the sautoir. Now the term is used for almost any long necklace but in 19th-century France, it described a particular kind of woman’s necklace: a long neck chain that hung from the shoulders to below the waist, often with a pendant or some sort of fringe at the bottom. Sometimes these were even worn draped over one shoulder. The long necklaces adopted by the Flappers in the early 20th century were also referred to as sautoirs.

It’s said that fashion goes in cycles: Nothing ever really disappears; it just fades for a while and then resurfaces in a slightly different form. It seemed to me that a perfect example of this was the way that the long, heavy gold chains of the Renaissance resurfaced—or came back with a vengeance- in the 1980s with the advent of hip-hop. Slick Rick, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Jam Master Jay, and RUN-DMC were just a few of the artists who wore the humongous gold “ropes”. Outrageous and extravagant, these chains were status symbols (as jewelry has always been), but more importantly, symbols of being accepted, of “being part of the crew. The link below shows a photo of the three members of RUN-DMC, all wearing ropes.

Then again, it’s entirely possible that ropes have nothing at all to do with European tradition. Kanye West calls them “an African thing”. While I couldn’t find much evidence of heavy gold chains being worn in Africa, the Akan people worked in gold, as did the people on the Côte d’Ivoire. More pertinent may be the long tradition of big, bold, dazzling pieces that are found in so many different types of African jewelry.

Since the late 1950s, fashion has moved from the music world into the mainstream. The heavy chains that the rappers made popular in the 1980s came back in 2007 when a younger generation of hip-hop artists resurrected them. Then this year, in a sort of side-step, bold chains evolved yet again, this time as high fashion accessories.

David Yurman designs jewels so sumptuous, they look as if they might have belonged to the wives of Henry VIII. Yurman tends to favor bold elegant settings and brilliant colored stones. But recently he’ s been showing thick, gorgeous chainsin both sterling silver and 18K gold. One of his most striking ads is a black-and-white shot of the model Kate Moss, opening a black coat to reveal bare shoulders and a stunning curb chain. The curb chain is usually worn by men (think ID bracelets) because it uses large, heavy links. It’ s the contrast and element of surprise-the delicate Kate Moss wearing what’ s traditionally aman’ s chain—that somehow transforms Yurman’ s thick gold collar into a dramatic piece of jewelry, the masculine style emphasizing the woman’ s femininity.

Donna Karan has resurrected the sautoir in a number of recent ads. Karan likes to mix and match her chains. In one, she shows a model wearing a two chains that look as if they’ re made of blackened gold. Though the chains are of slightly different length and design, they’ re both of a similar medium-size link. In another ad Karan shows a model in a royal blue silk tank top, a short, black skirt and a 6-tier chain necklace made of small-link chains strung at varying lengths, the longest loop falling beneath the hips. Interestingly, each tier seems to fasten with a wishbone-shaped clasp, worn in the front.

Who would drape two slender, slinky gold chains over a military-style dress? Gucci does and lends the casual but elegant dress a sparkling, slightly rebellious air. In the same spread Gucci shows a choker of big golden links and a bracelet of much thicker gold links again dressing up casual clothes.

Lilly Pulitzer, whose bright summery clothing always looks as if it were designed for lounging around after a long day on the beach, shows one of her models in a pink, green, and white dress topped by a chain of big, open round tortoiseshell links. It’ s the kind of jewelry you wear to dress up when you’ ve deliberately dressed down.

Elsa Peretti has designed an Aegean collection for Tiffany’ s that features a gorgeous necklace made of elongated, slightly irregular open sterling silver links that falls just below the breastbone. Simple and slightly edgy, it’ s pure elegance.

The charm bracelet is once again being reinvented. Henri Bendel, the exclusive mini-department store in New York City, is showing a gorgeous bracelet made of big, open gold links—ovals alternating with circles—sporting suitably posh charms.

Even the festoon has come back, this time in Steampunk fashion, using antique watch movements as the centerpieces of the necklaces’ multiple chains.

The big chunky dog-collar chain has also returned in the chicest way possible. The Italian clothing designer Roberto Cavalli, known for his love of excess, sets his golden chains against bare, tanned skin. He shows a model in a white bikini top, wearing a heavy gold open link chain that falls just below her collar bones. You almost can’ t help wondering how practical this necklace is—the chain looks heavy enough to drown anyone who dares swim in it—but practicality is clearly not the point. The look is all about luxury and turning heads. This is chain to wear as you stroll along the beach on St. Bart’ s or Mustique.

At the more delicate end of the chain spectrum is Me&Ro, whose elegant, casual jewelry is regularly featured on fast, edgy TV shows like Weeds and Burn Notice. (Check out what the characters Nancy Botwin and Fiona are wearing.) Me&Ro takes classic silver and golden chains and links them with hammered disks or disks engraved with flowers. The look is so light and graceful, you almost you don’ t notice you’ re wearing it, but it’ s guaranteed to turn heads.

Thick, thin, bold, delicate, endlessly versatile – chains may change their style over the years but they never go out of fashion. Beyond that, chains are connectors. They connect links of gold or other precious metals to each other. They connect pendants to bracelets or necklaces. And if we look at their history, they connect us to our past.