Late 1870s

Long Purse

Miser’s purses were made in a wide range of colors, with red, blue, and green being the most common. Green was a popular color for men, and green purses often appeared in the period’s literary works as gifts from female love interests. In William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair (1847–48), the orphaned Becky Sharp presents one as a token of affection to the affluent Joseph Sedley, with the hope that the young man will marry her. In the second half of the nineteenth century, purses in saturated pink-purple hues were fashionable after the discovery of mauveine, the first aniline (synthetic organic) dye by chemist William Henry Perkins in 1856.