Delill vinyl-covered art purses - point me at the right decade?

M

mercyonthesubway

Registered Guest
I've become predictably obsessed with these, having seen them sail (or sale) past me on Ebay in the past. They're shiny, they're bright, they're small-enough-to-collect-without-causing-a-storage-crisis... Here's one on which I was distressingly outbid, from a while back:



(But I've since acquired two others, not yet photographed).

I'm terrible at dating purses and wanted to get knowledgeable opinions from those of you who handle them regularly. At a future time, I'd like to blog on these and (as in the past) credit VFG with a lot of the informed input.

Right now, I have no images of my own to show you, so will everyone excuse me for adding these links? I'm starting with a couple of information links from Bag Lady and Vintage Purse a Day (just discovered! amazing!), and then some sold examples, including one from Dorothea's Closet. I've not linked to any items currently for sale, so I hope these links are okay for discussion purposes.

For the pretty pictures, see the following. The first two are kind of related, but not *exactly* the same as the type I've pictured above:

- Bag Lady on Delill - a *large* Persian-print bag dated ? to the 50s, scroll down:
http://bagladyemporium.com/BLU/index.php?n=Main.DelillCreationsCo

- Wendy at Vintage Purse a Day dates her related (not vinyl-coated?) example to the 1970s. Now, I'm thoroughly disorientated:
http://vintagepurse.blogspot.com/2007/06/costume-motif-quilted-fabric-bag.html

- Ang dated hers (you can see the vinyl covering clearly here) to the 1960s, just scroll down a few purses:
http://www.dorotheasclosetvintage.com/SHOESAccessPg2.html

- after eyeing it up for weeks, i've just caved and bought this one from Ruby Lane - no decade suggested:
http://www.rubylane.com/item/11055-04073/Unique-Vintage-Persian-Themed-Handbag?popup=1

- and finally Rice&Beans vintage dates her sold bag to the 1960s:
http://www.riceandbeansvintage.com/catalog/item/4875204/8081076.htm

Interestingly, I've seen an unquilted, vinyl-covered bag by Maxim of the same shape and design, which carries the same pictures as the Delill one on which I was outbid ages ago (pictured above). Wonder which qualifies as the knock off?

Finally another thing to confuse me with dates. This time an ad for Carpet Bags of America from 1972. Different type of bag, different material, different size, just similar image-inspiration. Completely unrelated?



The latest reference I can find to Delill bags on sale is 1991, in a New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/08/n...b-fare-and-whimsy.html?scp=1&sq=delill&st=nyt

Thanks everyone for any and all input! By the way, this could be related to the 'screenprint' resort dresses using similar images that I mentioned in my last post, which seem to swim around in the mid to late 60s, datewise (again, I wasn't sure of that one, so any input welcome).

Lin
 
Hi Karin! thanks! I'm terrible at finding new things to be hypnotized by...

Carrie, thanks for weighing in on early 60s in particular, that's a big help. It would locate the purses with the resort shift dresses, possibly at a period when certain art images are circulating and available for borrowing.

I've been footling around on other selling sites since I posted this, and found another unlabelled purse that seems to overlap with some of the images on the large Delill - it's as though a few manufacturers were trying to produce very similar-looking products.

interesting. More anon! Thanks again.
 
I loved that bag, it went to a sweet chick from Minneapolis who carried it during her commitment ceremony last weekend! she actually ended up buying it in my shop rather than online.....anyway, I assumed 60s because I'd seen other clear vinyl bags dated 60s over the years (none quite like this, but the vinyl seemed a very 60s thing to do!)

Ang
 
Wow, Ang, it's always good to hear about something being really significant to the buyer. How nice.

I think I must start searching for the ad for these things - they seem to have been a 'range', at least.

Do you happen to have a picture of the scene on the other side? I'm trying to compare and work out how the combos worked - some sides match each other, some don't...

Thanks! L
 
Well, this is very interesting. I have a new nugget of info to throw into the mix, so do let me know what you think of it.

A seller on the uk eBay has a very close parallel to these purses (the front and back scenes are the same as the one I've pictured at the top) but it is made by Maxim from slightly different textile and frame. Since the frame is simpler than in the Delill egs, one might theorize that Maxim copied them.

*anyway*, I asked the owner for further info. She says the bag was inherited from a lady to whom it was given as a gift on her honeymoon in NYC in 1955 (this is a couple visiting from the UK, so it does narrow the purchase window somewhat). Now I know how these stories can contain inaccuracies, but it did make me think. The larger BagLady comparison was dated by her to c1954 on I'm-not-sure-what-grounds...

I suspect I'm going to have to comb through some vintage mag holdings to look for ads... What say you?
 
Well, *duh*! I've been a bit thick. It turns out that at least three of these purses have no vinyl covering at all, but are just a kind of quilted satin. I wonder whether the vinylite versions were actually more expensive, which may be even more likely if these were 1950s. I'm seeing from the prints used (art prints and florals), that the large bags were produced at more or less the same time as the smaller purses.
Still need to find some ads!
L
 
Further realisation and a picture update, just in case anyone wants to use this for reference. Here's a shot of the three Delill purses, one large, two small. In the middle is a vinyl-covered version by Maxim, which the previous owner claimed was 1950s. The scenes on the Maxim ones parallel the Delill scenes but I'm not sure which way the influence goes.



In addition, I've obtained an example of one of the 'Carpetbags of America' ones, (ad above, 1972). It turns out the textile they used for the 'art' panels on those seems to be the very same product used in the Delill purses. I don't know how 'Carpetbags' operated. Either their use of the same fabric shows that the Delill ones are, what, late 60s? (leaving the Maxim one I-don't-know-where), *or* the same print continued to be produced by a textile-producer throughout, perhaps, the 60s. Either until 1972, or up to a point when 'Carpetbags' could use remaindered fabric to adorn their own much simpler hippie-style totes (they do seem to use all sorts in their early ranges, perhaps this is a solution?).

So if anyone has an opinion particularly about the Carpetbags range, please do chip in!
 
I think the Delill ones are 1956-58ish. The long rectangle with the snap top was big during those years. The bag lady's one somehow looks older. I can't imagine it being from the 70s; at least my 1970s self would never have been caught dead with such an old lady handbag!

As for the Carpetbags one, it is very likely they bought the unused remainders to use in their product.

I'm in the process of working my way through my 1960s fashion magazines, so I may have to eat crow. There were a lot of funky "ethnic" fashions cropping up after 1966!
 
thanks Carrie! I'm pleased to have leapt on those few - I've seen one or two float up on Ebay since, so they do seem to be available occasionally at very reasonable prices.

And thanks Lizzie, for the context/know-how! I confess I'm completely at sea with purses, and so rather ploddingly try and document the couple of types (Persian-style, 'destination' style) I'm obsessed with. Your estimates help *a lot*.

The bucket one uses exactly the same fabric as the long purses. It used to have a fixed golden change purse stuck to the very bottom of the back and standing upright in the middle of the 'bucket' (but has been well-used, and the change purse removed), an idea which Baglady first detects in the fifties (along with the clear vinyl covering), but which perhaps we're seeing here in an early sixties eg.

Still casting around for ads (but inefficiently, as have no time to acquire my own library nor hit a fashion collection for any meaningful length of time) so I look forward to any documentation you may bring to the surface!

thanks again, L
 
just to clarify (I need to label these or something) the three blue-toned purses (two long, one bucket) are Delill, the tawny long (vinyl-coated) one is Maxim - different textile range and slightly less elaborate purse fastening... I'm looking again the Carpetbags one - it's definitely the same fabric as the Delill range. will post a pic when I have a moment.
 
curiouser and curiouser

Just updating this thread to include some different examples of the same line of Delill purses, which I'm now obsessed with categorizing in some unnecessarily Linnean way.

Here's a wider style of purse, exactly the same kind of frame and lining. But the fabric is a more matt weave, and the printing a little finer.



Here it is hanging behind the more common version:



And here's another slightly strange one. Shorter than the usual type, and covered in a shiny vinyl:



The fabric is the same pattern as the one I posted right at the top of the thread, but has been made up into a shorter purse. It's also the same fabric /combo of scenes that was copied in the Maxim purse.

I'm starting to have a storage problem with these, so I should probably stop buying! Once again, if anyone finds ads for this style of Delill purse (they made them in other tapestry/art fabrics, too, I'm just obsessed with this fabric), I'd be really interested to see them.

Thanks all!
L
 
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