Thursday, February 3, 2011

Miser's purse





I bought a miser's purse in Kansas last month and I am totally in love with it. Sometimes called stocking purses, these were popular at the end of the 19th century and used to hold coins. This one is made of crocheted silk and cut steel beads. Here's how it works: There is a slit in the fabric near the middle where you can drop coins down either side. You push the silver "sliders" down over the coins after you drop them in to keep them from bouncing around. We didn't have any coins at home so I used my rings to illustrate how it works! So if you see something that looks like a fancy tube sock at your local antique mall, it is probably one of these!

6 comments:

Wildfell Hall Vintage said...

whoa I have never seen one of these, how weird and cool all the same time, I likey! I'd like one to keep my quarters in for the laundromat...

theticketytree said...

How unusual! I've never seen anything like that before, thanks for sharing!

Bess Georgette said...

I've never seen one of those before!
Gorgeous!

Wild Tea Party said...

Gorgeous! But doesn't strike me as actually practical nowadays? If I tried to pull my coffee money out of that it could take awhile and their might be a grumbly queue of uncaffeinated people behind me!

Zohar said...

That is one of the coolest things ever! I wonder how they came up with this?

Liane said...

I gasped when I first looked at this and saw the pile of rings. Oh! I really love learning about vintage pieces here. These bags are neat and would make storing my quarters for laundry more fun. I actually saw one of these in person this weekend. I went to a vintage expo with my sister and saw one of these purses in someone's case. Of course, I would not have known what it was if I had not read about it here first. :)

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