The Lizard Purse In Taupe: Somehow Perfect Proportions
This purse is a quiet color (funny how we think colors make noise, no?) and a simple shape, and yet it has enormous appeal to me, appeal which I can’t quite capture in these photos. The slight sheen to the lizard makes it hard to take a photo without getting lots of glare, hence the angle in the photos. It is about 10.5 inches wide by 7.5 inches high in the frame, not counting the handle, and it strikes the eye as perfectly proportioned. The round clasp gives a statisfying snap when it shuts. The top frame is inlaid lizard on one side and all gold-colored metal on the other. It is lizard on the outside and then some synthetic kind of lining inside with a fabric-lined zipper pocket.
There is not label inside but it probably dates to the 1960s, a time when many adult women still wore formal clothing to public events, especially in the early years of the decade. Something about its shape and color implies that its original owner was a woman in a sophisticated suit, a small hat, and gloves who gave off an air of quiet competence in everything she did. All this deduced from the proportions of her purse. I know it sounds fanciful, but all this idea struck me the moment a kind friend gifted me the purse. Now, if I can only live up to her memory. ;-)
