Leather Pouch Purses

The source for thes medieval purses can be found in

Tongerere: Basiliek van O.L.-Vrouw geboorte
1. Textiel van de vroege middeleeuwen tot het concilie van Trente.
Title Series: Clenodia Tungrensis
Pub: Peeter Leuven 1988

roll your mouse over the thumbnails to see an enlarged image.

The top purse is one of my favourites, it was a real pleasure to work.

The main purse, as well as the two small coin purses are leather, all of which are hand sewn and lined with linen.

The seams and opening edges have been strengthened with fingerloop braids - these also help to hide the seams of the leather which have been sewn butted together, not turned.

The seam braids have added french knots in pink silk running all the way down the length.

All of the tassels are topped with turks head knots. I made the gimp for these, the pink silk is wrapped around a linen core.

The silk has all been hand dyed.

The second purse is another variation.

This uses a white leather with golden and red silk. The turks' head knots in this example use a rayon gimp.

(Many thanks to Tess for permission to use the last image)

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