Victorian handbag - I think?

TinTrunk

TinTrunk

Registered Guest
Is it too soon to post another query? :)

I've just received a parcel from mum that's full of treasures, including this small leather handbag:

Vic_handbag_500w.jpg


Its made of incredibly fine grain glacé leather, and the latch opens by pressing one of those metal knobs. It looks quite flat, but both sides have accordion-style bellows so it can expand to more than three times its width.

Inside its lined with hot pink silk (very much like Schiap's shocking pink!), and there's what looks like a needle case, a propelling pencil and a button hook (ivory? Or possibly bone):

Vic_handbag_in_500w.jpg


I'm still searching museum databases for similar ones, but I've already found a handbag with a similar handle on the V&A database that they date to the 1880s.

Would any Victorian experts like to pitch in here? This is waay outside my area of knowledge!

Thanks in advance!

Sarah
 
I have a cheaper imitation of this in black leather, but its in lousy condition. Mine had a dated note from 1906 in it, but of course that doesn't positively date it...
 
Thanks Mary Jane! At least it looks like I'm in the right sort of era - late Victorian.

Here's the example I found on the V&A website (its the blue bag on the left):

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75429/handbag/

You can see it has almost exactly the same type of handle, a kind of curved, flexible cylinder tapering at the ends with metal fittings.

Jonathan - I love finding notes in old handbags! Does it say anything interesting? :)

This bag hardly looks used and the condition is very good apart from a prominent scratch on one side.

Sarah
 
I usually find boring shopping lists, although they have a certain quaint appeal after a certain age. And hairgrips/bobby pins!

And I've just found a blog posting by Couture Allure which has a handbag with almost exactly the same handle and frame as my handbag (its a MUCH fancier bag though) from the Hendrikje Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam:

http://coutureallure.blogspot.com/2009/09/weekend-eye-candy-victorian-handbag.html

So I'm happy to roughly date it to the last two decades of the 19th century.

Sarah
 
Just wanted to say - what a fab handbag!

I didn't have time anymore yesterday, as it was relatively late, but I had wanted took through my book of the Hendrikje Museum if there was anything similar there - and yes, there's a photo of the bag on the Couture Allure blog :spin: (the Hendrikje Museum is a fab little museum, by the way - I visited it last year).

Karin
 
Thanks Karin!

I've been to the handbag museum too, and spent a couple of blissful hours there with the place virtually to myself! Its in a very beautiful building too.

And I must get their book - all I had at the time was a few euros for some postcards! :)

Sarah
 
l'm with Jonathan actually, the metal work, clasp, lining and the instruments inside seem to me to be turn of the century, thus making it Edwardian.....

it was probably the bag of a governess, housekeepers bag, the modern chatelaine of its time...

sorry l havent been around lately or l would have pipe dup sooner!

sara x
 
Brilliant! Thanks so much Sara - I'll revise my dating forward a touch, and your description of the possible users is really interesting.

Sarah
 
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