Needlework Pocketbook
Subject
Accessories
Title
Needlework Pocketbook
Date
1817
Format
L: 3 1/8" x W: 3 3/8" (8.4 cm; 8.6 cm)
Opened: 8 1/2" long (21.8 cm)
Opened: 8 1/2" long (21.8 cm)
Description
This small, multicolored needlework wallet-like purse or pocketbook would have been used to carry small, flat items such as letters, bills, sketches, calling cards, and sewing tools. Three inner sections are formed by a cardboard base covered with fine, plain weave beige silk and edged in green thread. The outside is covered by a piece of canvas embroidered with floss in black, blue, white, pink, yellow, and green using the Queen stitch. The needlepoint design is equilateral diamonds containing either concentric colored squares or stylized flowers.
Covered by the flap closure, stitched in petit point, is the name of the maker, “Eliza W. Bartlett,” and the date 1817. On one of the interior partitions “The Property of Elizabeth Weeden Providence” is inscribed in ink. Stored in another partition is a memorial card, also inked by Elizabeth W. Bartlett, commemorating the death of Elizabeth Weeden on March 14, 1820. The Bartletts and the Weedens were descended from prominent Rhode Island families. In 1817, Elizabeth Weeden Bartlett (1806–1889) would have been eleven years old when she made this pocketbook for her aunt and namesake, Elizabeth Pool Weeden (1775–1820). Three years later, after her aunt’s death, she inscribed the memorial card now stored in the pocketbook. The donor, Abby Bullock Burgess (1882–1980), was the maker’s great niece.
Many needlepoint-on-canvas pocketbooks are dated to the latter half of the eighteenth century, a period that saw the growing popularity of fancy needlework produced by affluent women for home furnishings as well as accessories such as pocketbooks. Young girls learned needlework early, and later as wives their craftsmanship was a significant contribution to the elegance of their homes. As for pocketbooks, the introduction of narrow silhouettes for women’s dresses left little room for the pockets that formerly had been worn underneath their full-skirted gowns. This led to the rise of hand-held pocketbooks, reticules, and other bags.
This pocketbook is similar to one at Winterthur Museum and Library (accession number 1957.0067.009). It was made by Sarah C. Cook for Mary Remington. It is from Warwick, Rhode Island and is dated 1811–1815.
References
Foster, Vanda. 1982. Bags and Purses, London: B.T. Batsford Ltd.
Swan, Susan Burrow. 1977. Plain and Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1700-1850. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Covered by the flap closure, stitched in petit point, is the name of the maker, “Eliza W. Bartlett,” and the date 1817. On one of the interior partitions “The Property of Elizabeth Weeden Providence” is inscribed in ink. Stored in another partition is a memorial card, also inked by Elizabeth W. Bartlett, commemorating the death of Elizabeth Weeden on March 14, 1820. The Bartletts and the Weedens were descended from prominent Rhode Island families. In 1817, Elizabeth Weeden Bartlett (1806–1889) would have been eleven years old when she made this pocketbook for her aunt and namesake, Elizabeth Pool Weeden (1775–1820). Three years later, after her aunt’s death, she inscribed the memorial card now stored in the pocketbook. The donor, Abby Bullock Burgess (1882–1980), was the maker’s great niece.
Many needlepoint-on-canvas pocketbooks are dated to the latter half of the eighteenth century, a period that saw the growing popularity of fancy needlework produced by affluent women for home furnishings as well as accessories such as pocketbooks. Young girls learned needlework early, and later as wives their craftsmanship was a significant contribution to the elegance of their homes. As for pocketbooks, the introduction of narrow silhouettes for women’s dresses left little room for the pockets that formerly had been worn underneath their full-skirted gowns. This led to the rise of hand-held pocketbooks, reticules, and other bags.
This pocketbook is similar to one at Winterthur Museum and Library (accession number 1957.0067.009). It was made by Sarah C. Cook for Mary Remington. It is from Warwick, Rhode Island and is dated 1811–1815.
References
Foster, Vanda. 1982. Bags and Purses, London: B.T. Batsford Ltd.
Swan, Susan Burrow. 1977. Plain and Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1700-1850. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Source
Donor: Abby Bullock Burgess (Mrs. Alexander Burgess)
Identifier
URI 1955.05.67
Contributor
Susan Day
Collection
Citation
“Needlework Pocketbook,” Historic Textile and Costume Collection, accessed May 17, 2024, https://uritextilecollection.omeka.net/items/show/284.