Purse of walnut shell covered with embroidered silk, England, 1600-1650

Two halves of a large walnut shell are covered in green silk and worked in detached buttonhole stitch over silver thread and braid stitch. On each side, sprigs of carnation and possibly lily are worked with red, pink, yellow, green and cream silk and silver thread in fancy detached buttonhole stitch. The stems are in braid stitch.

It is lined with green silk, which forms the inner purse. It has a loop handle and draw string of plaited green and pink silk. The handle is attached to the embroidered cover at the centre of each half and the draw string runs through the top edge of the lining and out through holes bored in the centre of each nut half.

Given by Mr Peter Barker-Mill

Purses were associated with saving as well as spending, and this was sometimes alluded to in their decoration. Embroidered or beaded purses in the seventeenth century often included acorns in their pattern, an exhortation perhaps to 'save and prosper'. This early seventeenth century purse is made from a single nutshell, covered with embroidery and lined and hinged with silk. Barely large enough to contain a few coins, the purse was probably a novelty gift, but its maker may also have had the thought in mind that large oaks grow from tiny acorns.

T.57-1978