Historical information

This purse is an example of what is often described as the 1930s anachronistic meeting of industrial Art Deco and the arts and crafts movement, hand crocheted silk meeting geometric frames made of the 'modern' xylonite, an early version of bakelite. The Australian Arts and Crafts movement was at this time very focused on creating a notably 'Australian' design, utilising brown earthy tones and 'natural' shapes, such as this purse's spiral drawing on straw and taffeta purses of previous decades.

Physical description

Circular mount purse with xylonite chain interwoven with brown crocheted chain. Outside brown hand crocheted criss-cross stitch with scalloped edge. Xylonite mount with fleur-de-li patterning, edged with gold and black bead seed bead clusters. Opens with a push latch. Lined with a pink silk jacquard, opening embroidered with pink and green flowers.