18th Century Purses, Reticules, and Work Bags

See also pocketbooks, pockets, etc. As I can find similar forms, I’ll group them together.

(Of course, some of these groupings are fairly fluid; many of the unclassified drawstring bags, like Met 13.49.14 or Met 1980.445.11, could certainly have been knotting bags, for example. Not that knotting bags were only used for knotting; there is Lady Mary Coke’s observation of a lady in 1769: “She had a knotting-bag, embroidered, hanging to her arm – "tho indeed", said she "I never knott, but the bag is convenient for one’s gloves and Fan".”)

Some 18th century makers of bags and purses from Nuremburg, in the Landauer and Mendel Housebooks: Andreas Selzam (1713), Wolffgang Flintsch (1721), Johann Ziegmann (1722), and Jobst Sigmund Kraubiß (1756). Each man poses with samples of his work, some of which more resembles 15th & 16th century examples than what we see in the examples below.

V&A 557-1893, France, c. 1650-1700; “Tapestry woven purse of silk and metal thread in a Cupid and heart design with a green silk ribbon trimming formed in loops, with tassels. A quotation AQUILAURA, formed in a mirror image, reads 'c'est a qui l'aura' (it is a question of who gets it first)”
V&A T.198-1927, England, c. 1700; “needle lace in silk and metal thread”
PMA 1930-30-30, France, early 18th century; “Silk with silk and metallic thread embroidery”
PMA 1930-30-33, Italy; “Yellow brocaded silk with raised metallic embroidery and sequins; gilt cord; back of white silk satin”
PMA 1930-30-29, Italy; “Ivory silk embroidered with muticolored silk threads and metallic threads and sequins; blue silk and metallic gimp around edges”
PMA 1930-30-28, Italy; “Salmon colored silk over linen with metallic embroidery; silk ribbon ruching, linen foundation”
V&A T.46-1950, 1700-1730, Italy; “Pochette of white satin embroidered with pink, red, yellow, brown, green, blue etc. in silks, silver-gilt wire, gilt strip and braid in satin stitch, couching and speckling with french knots. Lined with green watered silk. Two tasselled strings of silver-gilt thread attached to the flap and looped fringe of silver-gilt thread. Front: formal design of flowers on scrolling stems. Back: Shield of arms, bearing a horizontal bar and three crescents on a field sewn with stars surrounded by a floral border.”
PMA 1921-39-13, France, c. 1725-1750; “Cover of solid embroidery, mostly of couched metallic threads (very fine gilded and silver metallic foil-wrapped silk threads, several weights), and satin-stitched silk flosses in greens, red, oranges, black, blue and beige; lined in blue and pink plain weave 'shot' silk; braided silk and metallic cord, with braided tassel”
18th Century needlework purse dated 1745 with initials 'AW'; “This purse is embroidered in rococco (Queen's) stitch [in silk on canvas]. The design of the needlework on the back of the purse is an interesting pattern of lozenges. The purse is lined in tan silk (one side of the lining missing). Plaited silk drawstrings and tassels.”
Manc 1953.318; “Pink silk figured in cream. Rounded ends, lined green silk and edged with silver lace. Double drawstring through holes at top with four chenille and silver thread tassels.”
Met C.I.38.23.110
V&A T.428-1966, England or France, c. 1760; “Netted bag made of bast or another plant fibre in pink and white, with five pom-pom type tassels”
Met 13.49.14, a silk bag embroidered with silk and straw, Britain
Met 2009.300.2193, silk [sprang?], Britain, c. 1785
PMA 1920-7-56, a woman’s purse embroidered yellow satin, Netherlands, 1790
Maria Niforos EI-28, silk purse with arasene (chenille) embroidery, c. 1790s; “The purse has a delightful shape, and the flowers are embroidered on a cream silk.”
PMA 1930-30-34, a key purse with silk tent-stitch embroidery on linen canvas, England, 18th century
V&A T.257-1922, Britain; “Knitted silk purse, with gilt opening bars and finger-ring”
Met 1981.352.2, Britain, silk, c. 1795 (This one looks like an upcycled waistcoat to me.)
Met C.I.59.30.2, a purse with silk and metal-thread embroidery, France, late 18th century
Met 2009.300.2081, late 18th century
Met C.I.59.30.7, France, late 18th century
Case Antiques Spring 2010, lot 508, late 18th or early 19th century; “Ladies linen embroidered drawstring reticule, with green banding at top embroidered with various animal designs including birds, deer, snake and crab.”
Met 1980.445.11, a silk bag embroidered with a bucolic landscape on lower panel, France, c. 1795-1800

Escutcheon-shaped panel purses

Many of these could have been for knotting.

CW 1991-512, c. 1680-1740; “Shield-shaped purse worked with polychrome silk French knots and satin stitches, bordered with couched silver gilt on silk velvet. On one side is a scene of a man wearing jacket and trousers, carrying a parasol, standing within a landscape. On the other side a female in vaguely "oriental" dress stands within a landscape. Both scenes are bordered with scrolling silver gilt needlework on red velvet ground. Purse in four pieces, opening to reveal red velvet gussets at sides, embroidered with silver gilt in the folds. Steel frame and clasp.”
Met 1994.169, France, late 17th-early 18th century
V&A T.89-1935, France; “Embroidered frame purse with two flat shield-shaped sides. One side has a figure in classical dress seated on a couch with a globe and dividers, the other has a figure holding a parrot. The purse has a metal mount.”
Met C.I.59.30.4, leather with silk embroidery, France
Met 2009.300.2076, Austria (?), first quarter of the 18th century
Manchester 1971.117, c. 1700-1730; “Coloured glass beads netted onto silk mesh. In four sections, tapering to base. Design of crown, heart and cupids with motto 'I AIME MON ESCLAVAGE' alternating with crowned monogram.
Manchester 1971.118, c. 1700-1730; “Coloured glass beads netted on to silk mesh. Lining of yellow silk. One section with pattern in four panels tapering to base. Design of crown and shield alternating with crown and cornucopiae, each with leaf and flower sprays. Braided drawstring (incomplete) with two bead covered, wooden tassels.”
V&A T.44-1970, France, c. 1725-1750; “Spade-shaped purse on linen embroidered with metal purl, silver and gold thread and coloured silk in laid and couched work and French knots. The ground fabric is entirely covered by the embroidery. The edges are decorated with a thick braid of gold strip, purl and chain. One one side of the purse is a lady, in the character of Diana the Huntress, with behind her a stag. On the other side is a gentleman hodling a gun with a wild boar at his feet. The two sides of the purse are attached to a pinchbeck mount which has a snap-fastening device (might be of a later date); at the sides are gussets of red ribbed silk. The purse is lined with cream tafetta.”
CW 1985-224, France or Germany, c. 1730-1745; “Small purse, shaped like a shield or a rounded "V", open at top with metal clasp. Purse is embroidered with silk and metallic threads on a silk ground. One side has woman picking fruit, with birds above and small house in landscape, worked in French knots within a shaped border of couched metal thread and plate on satin ground. Other side has deer and birds worked in knots, framed by bands of couched metal thread and enclosed silk embroidered flowers. Blue silk lining and edges.”
Met C.I.59.30.8, France
MFA 43.2477, England; “Netted drawstring bag striped in green, cream and brown, lattices, serpentines and sprigs in colored silk bibila work.”
LACMA M.85.207, France, c. 1770; “Brocaded silk, metallic thread, silk taffeta”
PMA 1907-214, America; “Silk embroidery and lining, spangles, silver mounting”
V&A T.321-1965, France; “Beaded purse made in four sections, each bearing an allegorical figure, one representing Justice, with pink silk cords and tassels”
MFA 43.2472, drawstring bag in Biblia work in a black and yellow checkerboard design
MFA 43.2474, “Polychrome silk bibila work drawstring bag, imbrications in open arrangement, white satin lining”
MFA 38.1226, England, late 18th or early 19th century; “Silk with gold and silver couching (Bibilia work), metal bobbin lace, silk ribbon, metallic tassels, silk and linen linings”

Game bags (for hunting)

PMA 1977-167-884, Germany; chamois leather and velvet
Wolffgang Flintsch, a bag-maker in Nuremburg, 1721

Gaming purses (for gambling, as with card games)

Vanda Foster (in Bags and Purses) provides this succinct history of gaming-purses: “Gaming was as much a feature of life in the eighteenth century as in the seventeenth, and games like Loo, Whist and Quadrille were played by everyone from the Prince of Wales to the quiet country parson. Circular gaming purses, like those of the seventeenth centruy, appear on decorated card tables of the time of Queen Anne, and in 1751 Diderot’s list of the apprentice pieces made by a French pursemaker included a velvet-covered leather ‘counter purse’ in the same style. By the 1780s, however, Rowlandson’s prints show gamesters, both fashionable and unfashionable, with the ubiquitous wallet purse. The style of most eighteenth-century purses was governed by current fashion in decoration and needlework techniques, rather than by function.”

V&A 2010-1899, France, c. 1660-1700; “The flat, circular base with sides gathered on a drawstring prevented spilling or revealing the contents. This gaming purse is quite plain, with no embroidery, only a twist of copper gilt thread. Its lack of decoration may have been deliberate, to deceive other players into thinking its owner had little money. Copper gilt was a cheap substitute for the precious metal thread made of silver-gilt.”
V&A 1119-1869, France, c. 1660-1680; “A gaming purse with round, flat base and gathered sides, made of kidskin covered with tawny velvet and lined with coral pink silk taffeta. The bottom of the bag is applied with silver tissue and embroidered with the arms of Jacques de Goyon de Matignon in silk and silver-gilt thread. The sides of the bag are embroidred with fleur-de-lys. The bag is gathered with a flat braid of coral and yellow silk and finials of silk and silver-gilt thread.”
Met 2009.300.2075, France, c. 1690-1710; “Gaming purses, round flat-bottomed pouches that closed by means of a drawsting were worked in various materials. This example is worked in fine petit point needlework. Its repeat pattern of pink flowers is interrupted only once by a single yellow flower. This anamoly may have personalized the bag, relating it to a particular owner.”

Stocking purses

Met 1976.149.5, Britain, early 18th century
CW 1971-1421, c. 1700-1750; “Stocking purse in green-blue silk worked in sprang technique (oblique-frame twining). The bottom is squared in shape and embroidered with couched and padded silver metallic threads in leaf scrolls with peach-pink and green silk flowers (same design on both sides). Upper portion has geometric diamond patterning in the sprang technique. Opening slit 5 inches long. The ends of the top are tightly wrapped with silver cord and hang loose to form a five-inch tassel. Single faceted metal ring is attached.”
Melpomene (caricature of Sarah Siddons) by James Gillray, 1784
CW 1971-1458, England, c. 1790-1840; “Stocking purse of pink knitted silk attached to rounded bag worked with buttonhole-stitch needle lace (probably worked over a purse mould). Knitted top has pattern of holes or dropped stitches forming dots, hearts, and diamonds. Rounded bag portion has design of strawberries and blue flowers on angular green stems worked with silk and metallic threads. The bottom of the bag is a coiled cord covered with metallic cord with a gold tassel in the center. The single slider ring is decorated with steel bosses.”
CW 1971-1427, England, c. 1790-1840; “Stocking purse knitted in purple silk with multicolor patterning in rounded bag end. The rounded bag section is in a silver metallic stockinette stitch patterned by rows of repeating pink and red-orange flowers on green stems. This section has guard borders of purple with a silver vine. On the end is a ball covered with silver and purple and a green silk tassel. The upper portion is in purple silk in a stockinette stitch in an open-work diamond pattern, with a slit opening 7½ inches long. At the top are two bands of knitted silver and a tassel of silver metallic cord. The purse closes with two faceted steel slider rings.”

Work bags