Vintage Black Patent Purse: Petite and Shiny
A friend is downsizing and giving away her large collection of vintage purses. and I was lucky enough to get a chance to take some. This petite purse has the high gloss of what we call patent leather even though it, like most of the accessories called patent leather now, is not actually made of leather but of some kind of synthetic. The term used to describe shoes and bags and such made of leather treated with a kind of varnish which rendered a high gloss. They are rare these days.
Although this is a petite bag, it makes the most of its size and offers a fair amount of space inside. I have learned you need to ponder a vintage bag from the side when closed in order to figure out how much it will hold without actually trying to fill it up. Most bags are far narrower at the top than at the bottom and then the folds which allow for that narrow top also take up space inside the bag. As a result, some vintage day bags won’t even hold a modern wallet with all its cards, if you are thinking of one for daywear. This one can hold a bit because it is so boxy, about as wide across as it is tall.
The handles are on little hinges and can be folded down or stand up. An awful lots of little details as a result and you can see why a bag like this would have been cherished and kept. It may date to the 1960s when patent finishes made a kind of comeback in new synthetics.