Not on display

Purse

19th century (made)

Purse, silk, beads, metal, England, 1800s

Object details

Categories
Object type
Brief description
Purse, silk, beads, metal, England, 1800s
Gallery label
(12/2020)
BAGS AS SOUVENIRS

These objects, made mainly for foreign visitors, were bought to remember a faraway place. A wallet from Constantinople (now Istanbul) with the date of purchase [T.115-1992]; a little purse depicting the Arc de Triomphe in Paris; a leather bag from Nigeria inscribed with the name of the wearer [Leather bag inscribed ‘Mr. D.P. Standfield’, 1948–67, West Africa, Horniman Museum and Gardens]: these are various examples of bags acting as souvenirs.

V&A, Room 40, Bags: Inside Out.
Credit line
Given by Messrs Harrods Ltd.
Object history
This was part of a very large collection of items of dress and accessories which was given to the Museum by Harrods, the department store, in 1913. The collection had been formed by the artist Talbot Hughes, who wrote a book on the history of dress, illustrated with photographs of models wearing items from his collection. A large firm in America had offered to buy the collection and present it to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, but Hughes did not want it to go abroad. At the suggestion of Cecil Harcourt Smith of the V&A, Harrods bought it for £2,500 and gave it to the Museum for the 'public good'. Harrods displayed the collection for three weeks in December 1913.
Collection
Accession number
T.1298-1913

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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