Purses
Fashionable silk, leather, and steel purses were imported from England and France; the silk one here may have been made either professionally or at home in the United States. The steel mesh was known as “Berlin work,” but purses in this style were produced in France.
Clockwise, from top: Morocco leather purse with embossed gold trim and tortoise shell, metal chain and clasp, about 1800, French or English, 3188, gift of Katherine Batcheller in memory of her mother, Catherine Phillips Cook Batcheller; green silk purse with metallic braid and silk flowers, early 1800s, possibly United States, 84.43, gift of Goldie Brownyard; steel mesh purse, 1790-1810, French, owned by Rebecca Ridgely Barney, 726, gift of Richard H. Thompson; silk purse with embossed leather and tortoise shell decoration, c. 1800, French, owned by Abigail Lake, 49.75, gift of Mary Louise Koss.
