Purse of black cotton knit embellished with steel cut beads and silver droplet bead fringe
- Title
- Purse of black cotton knit embellished with steel cut beads and silver droplet bead fringe
- LC Subject
- handbags
- Donor
- McCrady, D. H., Mrs.
- Description
- Purse of black cotton knit embellished with steel cut beads and silver droplet bead fringe; two silver rings at center; narrow in the middle with one square end and one round end; narrow center has opening.
- Motif
- Check pattern Fringe
- Work Type
- purses (ladies' accessories)
- Location
- Europe >> Earth United States
- Date
- 1870/1879
- Identifier
- 1900.006.082
- Rights
- In Copyright
- License
- Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
- Type
- Image
- Format
- image/tiff
- Material
- Cotton Knit Beads
- Technique
- Miser's purse Knit
- Set
- Historic and Cultural Textile and Apparel Collection
- Primary Set
- Historic and Cultural Textile and Apparel Collection
- Institution
- Oregon State University
- Note
- Miser's Bag was a knit bag with a long neck in the middle with a slit opening for accessing the coins/money in the pouches. Often one side of the pouch was round and the other side was square and/or the sides had different embellishments. This help the carrier to separate the more valuable coins. To access the coins the person would slide the rings to the side, stick two fingers through the slit and literally pinch the coins and take them out. Because it was difficult to get the money out, these purses were nicknamed Miser's purse. The bags were often carried by wrapping them around a belt or waistband.
