Dating Help on two leather girl's purses

[cmpollack]

Dating Help on two leather girl\'s purses

I am guessing that both these purses were meant for a child (the blue one is 5" x 3" and the brown 5 1/2" x 4"). I'm looking for dating help. Both have integral metal mirrors, and the blue one is labelled "Little Lady" (hence my hunch in the first place!)

My best guess on the Little Lady is 20s, but I'm wondering if the brown is same date or earlier? Also, is the design on it properly called tooling, or is that embossing? (It doesn't really look like Arts & Crafts/Nouveau tooling, which is why I'm thinking maybe earlier...)

Finally, how to market these? I figured I'd sell together (if they are both children's). Would a collector even be interested in these, as condition is not terrific? Or maybe I should market them as potential doll purses?

TIA for your help!

 

[connie]

I've seen a lot of tooled handbags in 1920's magazines. They seemed to favor an older, more Art Nouveau/Victorian style design on them, even when they're not really from that era. I'd guess 1920s on it. And really cool!

 

[vintagepretties]

Oh Carrie! those are both just precious!

They look 20s to me, and yes, its called tooling.

i love them both, they would be wonderful for a serious purse collector for display even; but you have a good point that they would be wonderful for dolls.

are you going to list them in your RubyLane shop?

yvonne

 

[cmpollack]

thanks so much for the date confirmation, Connie & Yvonne! (And yes, Yvonne, I was planning on putting them in my RL shop).

I'm always fuzzy on the distinction between embossing and tooling--seems there's a grey area in there somewhere... I don't think they're synonyms for each other, but maybe I'm wrong?

thanks again...