Woman's Embroidered Bead Purse or Reticule

Accessories

Woman's Embroidered Bead Purse or Reticule

ca. 1850 - 1900

Bead Embroidered Bags

While some reticules purposely matched the color of a pelisse or complemented an outfit, many served as decorative objects in their own right. During the early decades of the nineteenth century, well-bred women spent their leisure time on fine needlework. They embellished reticules with beads, embroidery, ribbons, lace, tassels, and fringe to highlight their skills. Victorian women learned popular techniques from sources such as The Handbook of Useful and Ornamental Amusements, published in 1845. In the 1830s and 1840s, women worked silk cross-stitch on linen canvas bases, followed by Berlin wool work from the 1850s through the 1860s. From the 1860s through the 1870s, they decorated reticules with appliqué and braid embroidery.

This Perrin purse is a black velvet drawstring bag with bead embroidered floral motifs. It has a damaged ¾-inch black silk header with a ¼-inch woven black ribbon drawstring. The header fabric is an unbalanced, plain weave, with paired 2-ply-warp yarns and single yarns with no apparent twist in the weft. The velvet fabric is woven with a silk warp pile on a cotton ply-yarn base fabric. The bag is lined with a tan, unbalanced plain-weave cotton/flax blend.

The bag is decorated with fine seed beads measuring 1/32 inch in diameter. Cornflower blue, light blue, navy, white, teal, and gilded steel beads create sprays of stylized floral and leaf motifs on the front and back of the bag The overall condition of the bag is good, despite some missing beads and the damaged silk header in the dye process. The bag originally may have had a fringe along the bottom edge, which interestingly has a shape similar to the Perrin beaded knitted bags.

References

Ettinger, Rosann. Handbags. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2003.

Foster, Vanda. Bags and Purses. London: B.T. Batsford, 1982.

van Eijk, Femke, coord., Bags. Amsterdam: Pepin Press, 2004.

Wilcox, Claire. A Century of Bags: Icons of the 20^th Century. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 1997.

Donor: Mabel Etta Streeter Perrin (Mrs. Irving Perrin)
Maude Ide Streeter Crabbs (Mrs. Frank Crabbs)

URI 1964.15.98

Joann Bussian Steere, MS '11
Susan J. Jerome, MS '06