Purse

Date1810-1825

MediumRibbed silk; silk ribbons; metallic threads.

DimensionsOW: 8 3/8" OH of body: 11", excluding 1 1/4" tassle at bottom.

Credit LineGift of Janice D. Reagan

Object number1992-84

DescriptionSilk drawstring purse of handbag of creamy-yellow silk taffeta, widening slightly at base and shaped with points at center top and bottom, with long double handles of knotted gold metallic threads. The bag is decorated with applied couched metallic braid, ribbons, sequins and portrait medallion. The decoration consists of a central oval with portrait of female figure from waist up, wearing high-waisted gown trimmed with "VanDyke" points over cap sleeves, necklace and crown worn low over forehead. Oval portrait is surrounded with couched metallic beads forming corded effect and evenly-spaced isolated bees in the cream field, made with couched variegated blue ribbons forming the wings, with a sequin at the head. Top and bottom of purse are decorated with bands of ribbons forming vines between rows of metallic gold braid couched to the surface. At either side of the drawstrings are star-shaped leaves with pendants. Back decorated as the front, without the female figure. Full lining of yellow silk.
Label TextThis bag appears to date from the Empire of Napoleon. The bee was one of the symbols of Napoleon, a device taken from Childeric I, King of the Francs and father of Clovis (le Bourhis, ed. The Age of Napoleon, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, p. xii.) The female figure may represent Josephine, whom he married in 1796 or more likely, Marie Louise, his second wife, whom he married in 1810.
ProvenanceThe bag was given to donor, Janice Reagan, by Ernestine Waite of New York City. Ms. Waite was 90 or 100 years old when she gave the bag in 1982; she had travelled to Paris occasionally, and may have purchased the bag there.