Category Archives: SCA Life

Purses Part 4 What the Clues tell us and More about purse forms!

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So last time we looked at the most common form for a large purse. And I mentioned that the picture of the purse held a very important clue.

Purse Frame Collage

Take a look at this composite picture. The left most picture shows the typical purse frame, and the right two pictures are of the piece of purse frame that I own. The picture on the top right shows the fragment of purse frame in the same position as the intact purse frame is in on the left hand picture. You can see that this purse frame fragment also has Niello decorations, this time in the form of floral swirls that act as spacers between words. DEO and H are the only visible letters on the frame fragment. The original inscription was probably “DEO HONOR ET GLORIA” – Honor and Glory to God. The use of standard inscriptions was very formulaic in Medieval times, but that is another blog.

The picture on the right bottom shows the cross section of the purse frame. As you can see, the frame is NOT flat, but rather L shaped. The back of the L, which doesn’t really show from the outside of the purse unless the frame is bent, is pierced to allow the bag portion of the purse to be attached. The two red arrows show two locations where the purse frame is pierced. I am certain that there are others, but these holes show because the frame is bent. The fragment of purse frame that I own has two holes in the back section of the frame that are 1 3/8 inches apart. Both of these holes are elongated from extreme wear and stress. Most purse frame pieces that we see show extreme wear. The main support bar is often bent and the holes in the frame that were used to support the fabric or leather bag usually show signs of wear. I have seen at least some examples where the top of the fabric bag was actually sewed to, and supported by, a heavy wire, which was then attached to the purse frame with wire loops. These wire loops would have put a considerable amount of point stress on the purse frame, causing both wear and stretching or bending of the purse frame. I would also suspect that purse frames, being an expensive item, were reused until they were totally worn out. It seems as if putting a new cloth or leather bag on a metal purse frame would have been a way to relatively inexpensively update an important accessory.

Before we go any further I should give a set of standard terms that I am going to use to describe purses. I have looked at a lot of purse frames in person and in online collections and my terminology aligns with what I see most of the museums using. Here is a graphic showing the basic purse frame with terms. It really isn’t that complicated, but having a set of standard terms will make it simpler when we are discussing the basic construction techniques that are used in the more complex purses later.

typical purse frame Parts

Next Time: What other forms of purse frames do we find?

Purses Part 2 My First Attempt at a Purse With a Frame

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My first introduction to seeing a purse frame in person occurred a very long time ago on a trip to England. I was wandering around the Victoria and Albert Museum when I discovered a display in the Bronze Department of a purse frame with Niello inlay. Niello is a decorative metal working technique that is used to create contrast on metal surfaces (for more information read this blog).

The purse frame was not complete, and I admit that I only had a vague concept as to how it worked, but I remembered the little metal frame coin purses that were popular when I was a little kid, and I knew that it had to be similar. A few months later I was in the midst of the year long Arts and Sciences Competition in the West Kingdom, known as the Golden Poppy. I wanted to make a purse with a frame, and I knew about the purse lid from the Sutton Hoo. I really wanted to do something Viking, but I couldn’t find anything like this, so I settled for Anglo Saxon. The fact that I even looked for something like this from the Vikings really shows how little I understood about Viking technology and working styles, but that is another blog.

So, based on what I knew about the purse frame that I saw in England, purse frames that I was able to find in books, and the Sutton Hoo Purse Lid, I made a purse.

Frame Purse Lid

I wrote a blog to give detailed photographic views of the purse. Here is the first part, and here is the second part.

If you are interested in the original detailed documentation here are the links to read it. It includes all of the steps, why I did what I did, and the bibliography.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

If you are interested in understanding the basic process of enameling, which I used to decorate the disk on the lid of the purse, here is a blog explaining the process.

Next time: Understanding the basics of a frame purse

Purses Part 1

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Purses. They take many forms, they are used by all social classes, and they are an important accessory for just about everyone from at least the Late Stone Age on. The actual definition of what constitutes a purse is a more complex issue than you may think. What are the size limitations, the materials that they can be made of, the method of construction, the method of closure?

Probably the most common materials are leather and cloth, and the most common closures are a draw string or toggle. I know that for the first ten years of my life as a reenactor that describes all of the purses that I, or any of my friends had. Simple bags with drawstrings, or leather belt pouches with some sort of toggle or latch completed our need for carrying small things (like money and eyeglasses). We often had other small bags and pouches in our purses to control the chaos that tended to develop in the purses.

Now that is not a complaint or any sort of put-down. Some of these purses, were truly lovely, embroidered pouches with silver spangles and tassels, leather belt pouches with leather tooling, appliqué, studs, or lacing. Totally documentable, and something that anyone should be proud to wear.

There are some excellent resources out there for people who are interested in making a reproduction of one of these types of purses. Archaeological reports often have very good pictures or drawings of the purse patterns. Probably the most notable collection of solid archaeological information on purses, that has been made much more user friendly with the inclusion of photographs, drawings, Medieval illustrations and good explanations is “Purses in Pieces” by Olaf Goubitz. Although the book focuses on the Archaeology of the Netherlands, the purse forms are fairly universal throughout Europe, just as any important accessory would be today. As a side note, the reason so much leather survives in the Netherlands is because of the soil conditions. The naturally wet conditions often preserve the leather instead of causing it to rot. We find the same sorts of preservation of leather and wood in the Novgorod (Russia) “black earth” areas.

As I mentioned before, the size and materials that an item is made of might also define its name. At what point does a purse become a Pilgrim’s bag? At what point does a net bag become Shepherd’s purse? But I have to admit that my plan is to leave that discussion for another place and time. Despite the fact that the purse forms that I have mentioned are very common in Medieval Illustrations they are definitely NOT the only form of the purse that we see represented. What interests me, and in fact has become something of a research obsession for me, is purses with frames.

Now that may seem a bit confusing at first, but most people are familiar with at least one purse that has a frame, the elaborately decorated purse lid from the Sutton Hoo burial.

Purse-lid from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial 1, E...

Purse-lid from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial 1, England. British Museum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next time: My first attempt at making a purse with a frame.