It is oftentimes interesting how a vintage item can hold a deep secret. Or perhaps, just that extra bit of surprise – maybe a hidden photo, a lucky coin, a threatre ticket stub to a grand night out on the town, or other small memento tucked away into secret pockets and long ago forgotten places.
I experienced just such a discovery recently when I found a special purse hidden within … a purse – a bag that had been covered with a soft blue moss-velvet fabric to match a pair of equally elegant ladies gloves, possibly from the 1930’s.
The bag, actually curiously heavy, seemed in order until I noticed the inside frame and lining with its fancifully colored beads peeping out from within.
What to do? Snip away a part of the pretty velvet covering that had been so well sewn and carefully stitched into place? Or allow the secret to remain an imaginary vision of a possible hidden treasure?
Curiosity won out, and so with careful and gentle snipping, the purse’s secret began to reveal itself.
It was indeed a delight to see a small portion of the colorful garden scene that awaited beneath the velvet casing. A few more snips along the frame, and the entire bag easily slipped through, revealing its original identity.
No loose or tumbling beads, no damage or other disappointments. Only a pretty canvas of multicolored Art Nouveau style flowers in glistening hues of yellow, red, green, blue, pink, lavender, and turquoise.
It has been suggested that the beadwork predates its Art Deco frame, and may have been remade a second time, prior to its more recent 1930’s updating. And so it came to be that this artistically beaded purse with its careful petit point work had multiple past lives – to be re-born in this new century and its beauty shared and appreciated once more.
— by Metro Retro Vintage
Inside Purse Frame
Colored beads exhibit the tell-tale signs of a secret.
What A Surprise!
Peeling away the outer velvet, reveals a burst of color.
Hidden Identity Revealed
The purse is released from its covering of over 75 years.
