Monday, October 26, 2009

Past Due Tuesday ~ Czech Opera Purses

Welcome to Past Due Tuesday, where all things "vintage" get their due by sharing them with others!

Thanks to you that joined us last time! If you are new and would like to participate in “PDT”, please follow the instructions below. We would love to have you join us!

Can you tell which came from Czechoslovakia and which were "Made In China"? These popular purses were usually fashioned with flowers stitched on a white medallion over a black background.

According to my research:

Petite and precious, the early 1900's petit point opera bag is an original and has remained in outstandingly pristine condition only due to the fact that it was used on rare occasions. The number of such events in the new Czechoslovakia were as bright and colorful as the bouquet of roses, tulipans and forget-me-nots delicately petit-point stitched upon the opera bag. Colorful as the occasions may have been in a time of nearly a century past, and colorful remains the brilliance of each stitch meticulously crossed, pulled, and tied into a bouquet as fresh as the day the flowers were "chosen".

These were particularly unique to the Czech culture, for it represented not only the acute needlework skills of the women, but the choice of native flowers near the villages in which the women were living. Patterns of flowers vary in these petite purses accordingly, with wider abundance of periwinkle or bachelor buttons in some areas; larger or smaller roses in some, and forget-me-nots and lilies of the valley in clustered bouquets in others. Frame styles also varied according to areas in which they were produced. The more elaborate being made closer to the larger cities. Entirely hand worked, the petit point was a skill ascribed to few of the day and laborious time and effort in accomplishing the artistic creation upon the black background was a work of art! (ANSWER: The bottom purse was Made In China)


Now it's your turn! Please share your passion for vintage items by following these simple guidelines:
1) Post a picture of something vintage that you love, on your blog and tell us all about it! What’s the story behind it? Do you have an entire collection of them? Where’d you get it? Who did it belong to? What do you use it for, etc?

2) Add a link to your blog (in the MckLinky area at the bottom of this post).

3) Feel free to add the "Past Due Tuesday" button to your post or your blog’s sidebar.
(To add the button & image to your sidebar, follow these steps:
A. Save the image on this post to your computer.
B. Go to your add page layout page and click on the sidebar Add Gadget.
C. Scroll down to where you see add picture, click on that. Now select the image from your computer to download.
D. Now add the ROOMIES blog link in the link window and click save.)

(Please be sure to have your post up before linking in.)

4) Test your links and make sure they’re working! If your link gets deleted, it's because you missed one of the rules, so just reread them and repost again!

5) Visit and comment on as many of the other bloggers who are participating in “giving vintage it’s due” as you can.





1 comment:

  1. How interesting! I will never look at one of these lovely little purses again without thinking about where it came from and what flowers must grow there. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete