Man's Pocketbook
Original OwnerOriginally owned by
John Storrs
(1735-1799)
EmbroidererAttributed to
Lydia Storrs
(American, born 1742)
Date1754
MediumLinen, wool
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (height x width closed): 4 1/4 x 7 1/2in. (10.8 x 19.1cm)
Primary Dimensions (height x width open): 8 1/2 x 7 1/2in. (21.6 x 19.1cm)
ClassificationsCostume
Credit LineThe Newman S. Hungerford Museum Fund
Object number2008.46.0
DescriptionCanvaswork pocketbook with worked name and date: "John Storrs 1754". Accordion compartmented wallet with wool flame stitching and cotton tape binding. The cotton tape binding may not be original to the wallet. A back crewelwork panel worked with a recumbent lion and stag flanking a tree bearing fruit; the ground with large scale blossoms and butterfly above the cross-stitched name and date.
Label TextIt is extremely unusual to find a landscape decorating a pocketbook. The
front shows a lion and stag (among the most popular beasts in heraldic
imagery), peacefully coexisting in a Garden of Eden. The stag, a male deer,
was also known as a hart, and had specific local associations with Hartford.
Worked pocketbooks were frequently gifts to men from family members
or sweethearts. This wallet could have been made by John Storrs’s
younger sister Lydia, his only immediate female relative, who would have
been twelve years old at the time. This pocketbook would have made an
appropriate schoolgirl finishing project.
front shows a lion and stag (among the most popular beasts in heraldic
imagery), peacefully coexisting in a Garden of Eden. The stag, a male deer,
was also known as a hart, and had specific local associations with Hartford.
Worked pocketbooks were frequently gifts to men from family members
or sweethearts. This wallet could have been made by John Storrs’s
younger sister Lydia, his only immediate female relative, who would have
been twelve years old at the time. This pocketbook would have made an
appropriate schoolgirl finishing project.
Status
Not on view
