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This is your last week to catch "Essential Style: Vintage and Antique Purse", on display, pre-security, in the International Terminal! http://bit.ly/EssentialPurses #EssentialPurses Art Nouveau or “New Art,” an innovative style of modern art, developed in the late 1880s and flourished until World War I. Designers favored intertwined organic forms including tendrils and leaves with curvilinear shapes. Flowers, insects, snakes, and bats, were common motifs, but the delicate female form or femme-fleur predominated—with long, sinuous hair often encircling her entire form. Before the bodies of metal mesh purses began to be colorfully enameled in the mid-1920s, their frames were elaborately engraved or embossed, many in the Art Nouveau style. Silver ring and armor mesh bags were favored from the late nineteenth century to the early 1920s. Manufacturers made many early versions from sterling silver or German silver and occasionally gold, which made them quite costly. Prior to machine production, people commonly assembled early mesh bags by hand at home, an extremely time-consuming process. German and American makers produced many of these bags. They were available in various sizes and styles, including chatelaine bags made to hang from a woman’s waist belt. The bottoms of the bags commonly displayed small metal balls or drops. This image was posted on July 19, 2016.

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