How could I forget?!

Last April, during a 2-week holiday in Switzerland (I really needed to get out of NY and away from my job, who could blame me?), I happened upon this velvet purse in the Historiches Museum in Lucerne:




Unfortunately, I don't have much information to share with you. It was described as a "purse of blue velvet lined with buckskin"; the acquisition number is 2E-2.04.01.

Surprisingly the museum director, a Dr. Heinz Horat, was kind enough to speak with me. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to produce much more information than what I already had (yes, he actually went and dug through paperwork for me). He explained that many of the museum's acquisitions were collected in the 19th century, during which time the building was an armoury. Thus, when it was turned into a museum, they were rich in artefacts but poor in documentation. Dr. Horat surmised that the purse dated from the 18th century.