Today may have been one of the most exciting days of my life. Today we got to visit the Museum of Bags and Purses. Talk about excitement. Talk about entertainment. This is the pinnacle of museumdom in Europe.
The top floor was all about bags and purses in the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Or was it the 15th century. Dang it. Now I have to go back to find out.
The place started off by showing why historically men and women have worn bags and purses. By the 17th century, men stopped using bags and purses except for specific reasons like gaming bags. The reason? Pockets. Pocket were invented and men decided they could carry all the important stuff in their pockets. But for women, the golden age of purses was just beginning.
The place had a display for beaded bags. Another for work bags. And yet another for Straw, wood, and other materials. There was a display for silver lined bags and another for silver accessories.
There was another display for Chatelaines. Read the above if you are interested. There were more separate displays for tie pockets, leather bags, tortoise shell bags, ivory bags, reticules (whatever that is), stocking purses, more leather cases and wallets, gaming purses, and mesh purses. And we were still not out of the 19th century yet.
As we entered the 20th century on the next floor down, we saw displays on early plastics, cut steel, Art Deco, marcasite, and more Different Kinds of Leather (capitalized because that was the title of the display).
This beaut was titled unusual bags.
It wasn't a total loss. I was able to sit down and wait for the rest of my party with a man smoking marijuana. So great day.
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