What did Catherine II of Russia keep in an iron cage in her bedroom for more than three years?

Calpurnia

Catherine II of Russia kept her wigmaker in an iron cage in her bedroom because she did not want anyone to know that her hair was not her own. There are several sites which mention this. Just do a Google search for 'Catherine II, iron cage'. Mar 13 02, 11:28 PM

Son of The Household Cavalry

Son of The Household Cavalry says: Catherine II of Russia kept her perruquier for more than three years in an iron cage in her bed-chamber, to prevent his telling people that she wore a wig. -Mons. De Masson: Memoires Secrets sur la Russie. Perruquier was the posh word for wig maker. A variation of the French perruque, Latin pilucca, our periwig cut short. In the middle of the eighteenth century we meet with thirty or forty different names for wigs: as the artichoke, bag, barrister's, bishop's, brush, bush (buzz, buckle, busby, chain, chancellor's, corded wolf's paw, Count Saxe's mode, the crutch, the cut bob, the detached buckle, the Dalmahoy (a bob-wig worn by tradesmen), the drop, the Dutch, the full, the half-natural, the Jansenist bob, the judge's, the ladder, the long bob, the Louis, the periwig, the pigeon's wing, the rhinoceros, the rose, the scratch, the she-dragon, the small back, the spinach seed, the staircase, the Welsh, and the wild boar's back. www.bartleby.com/81/17481.html and Brewers Phrase and Fable Thu Mar 14 16:21:40 CST 2002 (To fix characters - McG) Jun 01 03, 8:02 PM