As possessors and collectors, we have always needed somewhere to put the fiddly things. Throughout history the carrying bag has continued to be an obligatory item in everyday use, changing its style only according to the wealth of its owner; but whether we heave a hemp sack over our back or finger our Italian leather wallets, we have a common bond for the old bag.
Animal skins provided the first obvious pouches. As weaving developed, coarse woven cloth became the most economical material to sew up into practical bags. Humans were advancing. Knowledge traveled. Luxuries increased, the rich seeing fit to employ needle-working ladies in the making of silk purses. These tidbits were knitted on fine steel or bone pins; initials and titles patterned into the design with gold metal thread. Glass beads, bugles, and coloured silks added to the sumptuousness of these glorious assets. When cod-pieces were a standard fashion display, gentlemen deposited fruity cod-purses in this precious hold… a fancy place to keep one’s silver, and a salacious offering for maidens. How grateful we are for those centuries of wasteful extravagance, observing with envy the incredible ability of humans to fashion these resplendent coquettes… a patience and artistry we find difficult to pursue.
Our Mistress of the Purse was the early-Victorian ‘lady of the house’, a duty of serious obligation. If in an upper-class position, she handed the management over to a trusted housekeeper who usually served the mistress for life. The ordinary housewife had little affordable help. Money did not abound and purchases had to be well respected. Her mouth was drawn in as tightly as her purse, the lords and ladies being regarded as jeweled peacocks… useless flummery.
We think here of the old term ‘under lock and key’. Even the tea caddy, often encrusted with silver swirls in wealthy homes, had a key. These imported leaves, a connoisseur’s delight, were costly, along with sugar. The mistress wore a belt from which hung the heavy iron room keys and valued scissors. Beneath the layers of skirts (petticoats) were one or more secret purses. These she knitted in strong silk or cotton, making eyelets for the tie-cord. The cord could be knitted tubular, in the manner of bootlaces (which were done in glossy black cotton requiring only two knitting pins and employing a clever turning method). Within this pretty purse the mistress kept her most private keys; precious sewing needles; a lavender handkerchief for headaches; a snip of her beloved’s hair; a few coins for a desperate occasion, and perhaps intimate, forbidden love letters (folded into small squares then fastened with silk ribbon. These purses were splendid in lace patterns. Other designs formed net, mesh and picot knots, sometimes combinations of knitting and crochet completed the design. Worked in the round on 4 or 5 double-pointed sets of steel needles, they often were never seen by anyone but the mistress.
Commoners had a slashed opening on the right side of their outer skirts, making it a handy place to keep the pennies for market days. The housewife, imprisoned in poverty, had no station as mistress of the house. With sparse possessions, she had few keys to guard, and decried the nonsense of exhausting oneself by knitting frivolous accessories. However, she had her purse. Stuffed into a woolen underskirt hid a private, squash-shaped bag, harshly made and hastily tied with parcel string. From this hole of fortune she might pay for a cabbage or an ox tail, or indeed she may hide a stolen stick of taffy (toffee).
We don’t cosset too many things under our skirts today, and we feel far from rulers of our estate, but it’s a tempting idea to have your own secret purse. I believe every mistress should knit one up for her self… and then her gentleman must have a cod-purse.
Esmerelda Jones… The Knitting Wench
Writer Of Desires
Writer Of Old Curiosities
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Victoriana, Victorian Swoon, Gods & Goddesses: The Wisdom And Pleasures of Ancient Greece, Classic Romance, Poems For The Passionate, Whimsical Tales, Bushrangers & Australian Pioneer, Ghosts I Have Known, Gypsy Knitting. Ratings and comments delightfully accepted.
