We had no correct answers for our March’s What Is It. It is kind of hard to make out, isn’t it?
The item is a purse! This tiny party bag is of the 1920s era. It is made of silk covered with tinted ostrich feathers. Pretty fancy. The purse could hold little more than a compact.
In 1978, at an auction in Massachusetts, seven small handbags—needlework purses and pocketbooks— dating from the 18th and early 19th Centuries were sold for $1,100. Some of these purses measured only a few inches across. The price paid for them is an indication of the rarity of early American handbags. Fortunately for collectors, however, the prices paid for some of the more common handbags, while increasing, have not yet soared into the four-figure range.
Why not try to guess the April’s What Is It? You can win a year’s subscription to The Mountain States Collector. Good luck!
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