Mariner's Bag

Date1844

MediumSilk embroidery threads on a linen ground with cotton piping and roping, cotton and silk knotting, wool tassel remanants, and ivory ring and slide

Dimensions31 1 /2" x 20" (80.0 x 50.8 cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1979.610.5

DescriptionThis is a linen mariner's bag embroidered with silk threads and embellished with cotton piping and roping, cotton and silk knotting, wool tassel, and ivory ring and slide. The body of the linen bag consists of four panels delineated by piping, with a separate 3-inch tall section forming the top edge of the bag. The top section is made up of two lengths of fabric. Two different blue cottons were used for the piping, one a twill-weave and one a plain-weave. Most of the knotting is silk of various colors. However, the T-shaped section immediately above the twelve separate strands of roping (lanyard legs) is natural cotton. Each of the three branches of the T terminates in a round decorative knot, with each of the "arms" of the T intersecting a length of silk knotting. The sewing thread is cotton. Brown linen thread was used to tie off the raw ends of the cotton roping just inside the perimeter of the bag opening and to tie on the red, white, and blue wool tassels whose remnants appear immediately above four of the knots. The embroidered motifs of the bag consist of three flags, crossed arrows, mermaid, flamingo, swan-like water bird, black figure riding an ostrich-like bird, tree, building, and figure of a sailor identified as "Alwilda." In silk embroidery on the bottom of the bag is the date "1844." Across from the year date, the bottom of the bag appears to have once had a considerably longer embroidered inscription, but unfortunately this has been almost entirely picked and cut out, leaving only the last (or next-to-last) letter (or numeral) of "O."
Label TextThe identities of the flags and the sources for most of the intriguing images embroidered on this sea bag remain unidentified. However, the sailor shown on one panel clearly represents "Alwilda, the female pirate," a popular mariners' motif taken from a plate in THE PIRATES OWN BOOK, OR AUTHENTIC NARATIVES OF THE LIVES, EXPLOIT, AND EXECUTIONS OF THE MOST CELEBRATED SEA ROBBERS (Portland, Maine, 1837).
Seamen's bags were often elaborately decorated, either by the users themselves or by wives or sweethearts in home port. The size of the bag indicates that it served as a clothes bag rather than a ditty bag, although the latter was more often piped than the former. The overall length of the bag, including is lanyard, is 76-inches, a little longer than the six-foot maximum prescribed for hanging neatly in a ship's forecastle. The ivory slide could be pushed down over the lanyard legs in order to draw the bag shut.
InscribedThe bottom of the bag appears to have once had an embroidered inscription, but unfortunately this has been almost entirely picked and cut out, leaving only the last (or next-to-last) letter (or numeral) of "O."
Markings"1844"
ProvenanceThe mariner's bag is a gift of an anonymous donor. No further provenance is known.