SPECIAL POST: Eli Bogan Handbag Company - And a Possible Connection to Artist/Designer Eric de Kolb

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Left to right: Bogan 1947 black leather "accordion-sided" bag, Bogan 1948-1950 black leather "Fanfare" handbag, Eric de Kolb 1946 red reptile "accordion-sided" bag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.


Leather Artisan and Family Man Eli Bogan
With a possible connection to artist Eric de Kolb

We at The Vintage Purse Museum were always curious about the Bogan Handbag Company, as we’ve had their “accordion-sided” bag in our collection for many years, a gift from a relative of our curator. In our four decades of accumulating the collection and acquiring purse-related research, we realized that the unusual “accordion-sided” rectangular bag and the innovative “accordion-top” oblong box bag were the only two handbags we’d seen with the Bogan label.

Our interest was once again piqued decades later, when we had a fellow member of the Antique Purse Collectors Society over for a visit to view our privately-housed collection. They thought our accordion-sided bag was made by Eric de Kolb, who was also famous for this style. This led to our deep dive into the separate histories of Mr. Bogan and Mr. de Kolb, wondering if we could prove that they had some sort of connection. As with most of our articles for The Vintage Purse Museum’s website, we also hoped to document these individuals' work, and share some details of their personal lives.

We’ll start with Eli Bogan, whose family graciously spoke with us via email and over the phone. Our contact began with a great-grandchild of Mr. Bogan’s, which led us to one of his grandchildren, who facilitated a discussion with two other grandchildren, as well as the surviving child of Eli and Betty Bogan. They are in their 60s to 90s, and we are withholding their names for privacy. 

Eli Boguslawsky was born between 1893 and 1898 (records vary) in Russia (now part of Ukraine) and came to the US from Liverpool, England in 1923 on the ship Carmania, arriving at the port of Boston, Massachusetts. His name appears as Morduch Boguslavsky on the manifest; however, “Mordecai” appears to have been Eli’s father’s name. Eli’s father paid his passage, so perhaps this explains the name error. Eli was traveling with his wife Bettia, and children Mira and Jona. (The manifest has another error, reversing the ages of Bettia and Eli.) It says they were from Poltawa, Russia (now Poltava, Ukraine), going to Chicago, and that Eli was a shoemaker. The ship’s manifest lists Joseph Boguslawsky as their sponsor to Chicago. His relationship to the Bogans is unclear, but we believe Joseph may have been Eli’s brother. After their arrival to the US, Eli’s son Jona became “Joseph,” and daughter Mira became “Miriam.” The couple later had two more children, Edward and Paula, born in Chicago.

According to the grandchildren of Eli Bogan, he and his family suffered greatly in Russia due to escalating acts of antisemitism. Eli told many stories of his homeland, including that he’d personally seen Russian Cossacks executing Jewish villagers, and that he had to defend his own life in a graphic manner. While we know the details of this story, we are not relaying it here as it is quite disturbing. 

During WWI (1914-1918), a half million Jews served in the Russian Imperial Army. However, by the end of WWI, and the start of the Russian Civil War (1917-1923), pogroms and mass murder of Jews had gotten worse. Eli Bogan, who, his family said, was a boot maker for the Russian Army, finally fled in 1923. His wife Bettia—who later Americanized her name to Betty—left Russia before Eli did. She and their two children somehow made it to England. Family lore is that it was only by chance that Eli and Betty saw each other on the streets of Liverpool, and were able to reunite and travel together to the US on the RMS Carmania.

Eli became a naturalized US citizen in 1929. In the 1930 US Census, Betty was listed as “Rebecca” (likely a census-taker mistake). They were still using the name Boguslawsky and living in Chicago. Eli was working as a cutter in the leather goods business. 

Betty became a naturalized US citizen in 1940. According the 1940 US Census, Eli, Betty, Joseph, Edward, Paula, and the Bogans' nephew Milton lived together in Illinois. The Bogans’ elder daughter Miriam was no longer living with them. At that time, per the census, Eli was the proprietor of a delicatessen. (The family was unable to confirm this change in occupation.)

The youngest Bogan child, Paula (b. 1933, married name withheld for privacy), was kind enough to share some memories of her parents, which she relayed to one of the Bogan grandchildren, who, in turn, told us. Paula recalls that the family moved from Chicago to New York around 1941. 

By the 1950 US Census, the family was using the name Bogan. Three of the children lived in New York with their parents. Eli was listed as a wholesale ladies' bag maker. The word “wholesale” is a potential clue as to the possible connection to handbag designer Eric de Kolb. A conclusion could be that Mr. Bogan primarily wholesaled his bags to other makers or department stores, which put their own labels in them. This would also explain why we’ve only seen two styles of bags with the Bogan label. Unfortunately, the grandchildren were not able to tell us much about Mr. Bogan’s business dealings as they were all children (or not born yet) at this time. We also learned from the Bogans’ daughter Paula that the patriarch did not bring his work home with him, preferring to enjoy family time.

Eric de Kolb, about whom we write extensively in a separate article below, designed handbags from approximately 1941-1947. He was from Europe, and was quoted as saying (paraphrased here; actual quote in the article below) he did not make clothing patterns or sew apparel, and was strictly a designer. This is why we felt he may have used Mr. Bogan’s leatherworking expertise to manufacture his designs. Among them was the accordion-sided bag. We have two examples of this bag in our collection—one with the Bogan label, and one with the Eric de Kolb label. While they are of different materials and colors, the dimensions and construction are nearly identical. (There is also a beaded version of this bag made by a company called Du Bonnette, but we have not seen it in person, so we can’t make a comparison. Edit: On the day that we published this article, we learned that a friend of The Vintage Purse Museum has this bag with the Fre-Mor label.)

Bogan black leather and faux tortoise-shell "accordion-sided handbag," circa 1947. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 

Top open view of handbag above.

Handbag above, fully opened. The interior compartments are lined in black, green, and gray satin.

Bogan label inside bag above. 24 Aug 1947, Sun The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) Newspapers.com

It’s well-documented that midcentury handbag companies periodically copied each other’s designs or sourced them from the same wholesalers. Based on newspaper advertisements, it appears that Eric de Kolb’s label was in this bag in 1946. By 1947, it had the Bogan label. We believe that 1947 is approximately when Mr. de Kolb was venturing into other types of design work, and that it is very possible that he gave Mr. Bogan permission to continue to create this design, or sell what was left in inventory under the Bogan label. 

Per a 1948 newspaper ad for Selman’s department store, an unnamed company produced a similar accordion style at a considerable discount, and it was called a “copy” of a more “expensive bag.” We don’t know if this was a completely different maker, or if Selman’s department store was simply clearing out this style’s inventory.

It is important to note that the accordion portion of the bag, a series of connected plastic bars, is not Bakelite (a trade name for a type of phenol formaldehyde resin) or Lucite (a trade name for a type of polymethyl methacrylate), but a molded faux tortoise-shell plastic, which was commonly used in handbag hardware.

Folded side of faux tortoise-shell molded plastic pieces that comprise the accordion portion of the bag above.

Bag above with faux tortoise shell "accordion" sides extended.

Another clue that alludes to a relationship between Mr. Bogan and Mr. de Kolb is that, in 1948, Mr. Bogan applied for a patent for what is widely known as his “accordion top” handbag, and referenced a 1944 design of Mr. de Kolb’s in his patent application. Citations are very common in patents as a way of noting similarities in previous designs, thus avoiding patent infringement lawsuits. In this case, it was likely standard due diligence, but it also could’ve been a personal nod from one business associate to another. Or, perhaps, a hint that Mr. Bogan had previously manufactured Mr. de Kolb's designs. Again, we are speculating.

Eli Bogan's patented Fanfare handbag, screenshot from Google patents.



Eli Bogan's patent showing an Eric de Kolb 1944 bag design as one of the references cited. Screenshot from Google patents.


Eric de Kolb 1944 patent referenced by Eli Bogan in his 1948 patent application. Screenshot from Google patents.

Mr. Bogan was granted his patent in 1949, and one of the labels inside this bag refers to that year. The other label has the maker name and calf logo. We discovered an obscure mention of this bag in a 1948 handbag industry trade publication, with the model name “Fanfare,” which led to us finding 1950 newspaper advertisements for it. Contrary to the “accordion top” moniker that this handbag has taken on today as a vintage collectible, it seems that Mr. Bogan was not trying to represent an accordion in this design, but a fan. 

Paula Bogan remembers seeing her father in his shop, cutting the leather pieces that comprised the Fanfare. (In 2017, contemporary designer Gabriela Hearst made two sizes of a pleated leather bag dubbed the “Ella” and the "Jane." They look very much like Eli Bogan’s Fanfare.) 

Eli Bogan "Fanfare" handbag, 1948-1950. His daughter remembers seeing him cut the pieces of leather for the fan-shaped top. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of top portion of bag above.

Interior of bag above, lined in red, with patent number and date the patent was granted.

Bogan label inside handbag above.

05 Nov 1950, Sun Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) Newspapers.com 

In the 1950s, the Bogans’ home life on Coney Island Ave. in Brooklyn happily proceeded as they added a son-in-law, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. We found 1951 newspaper wedding announcements for the three youngest children of Mr. and Mrs. Bogan. (Miriam, the eldest child, was already married.) Son Joseph’s wife-to-be Rosalynde was a childhood best friend of the Bogans’ daughter Paula, and, according to one of the grandchildren, it was a lighthearted contest to see who made it to the altar first.

Paula Bogan said that her father was very private when it came to his business. When he was home from work, his only focus was his family. As he grew up in the “old country,” he sometimes didn’t understand their needs—especially when it came to women and girls—but he was ultimately very sensitive and accommodating. For instance, when Paula asked for a set of encyclopedias for schoolwork, her father at first didn’t understand why they were a necessity. Then he thought about it, and soon purchased the encyclopedias for his younger daughter. She also shared that he gifted her with an accordion-sided handbag made of reptile and suede. He clearly wanted to make his children happy. If she came home wearing a pair of blue shoes, said Paula, the next day she had a blue handbag to match. 

One grandchild remembers their grandfather Eli as being a very sweet man, and “a talker,” willing to share stories from his youth, which is quite unlike many of the handbag makers of similar origins that The Vintage Purse Museum has profiled in the past. Grandmother Betty was “a saint,” said the grandchild, but definitely ruled the roost. Daughter Paula confirmed that her mother was “tough.” However, the grandchild said that when Betty would fly from New York to visit her children and grandchildren in Beaumont, Texas, she would often bring salami, matzah, and chopped liver. Many Jewish families will tell you that food is the love language of a Jewish grandma.

According to a 1953 handbag trade publication, Bogan Handbag Co., Inc. was located at 693 Broadway in New York City. (This is known as the 1908 Merchants Building, and has a façade featuring gargoyles and owls.) Eli Bogan was president of the company, and its secretary-treasurer was Maurice Spindel. The 1950 US Census lists Maurice Spindel as a “bag frame cutter” for a wholesale frame company. Paula Bogan remembers Maurice Spindel as a family friend.

Eli Bogan’s two sons worked for their father in the bag business. One of the grandchildren told us that their understanding was that Eli wanted to continue to create bags on a custom order basis, but the sons would have preferred that the company carry inventory.

Eventually, much of the family moved to Texas, where eldest daughter Miriam had settled with her husband, a prominent community member who owned an optical company. In the late 1950s, Eli and Betty followed their children west, with Eli working for a leather goods manufacturer in Ferris, Texas. But the couple missed New York, and moved back after only a few years. 

Eli passed away in 1972 and Betty in 1989. They are interred in Wellwood cemetery, West Babylon, Suffolk County, New York. We feel very fortunate to have learned about Eli Bogan, his background, his willingness to share his harrowing past, and his tremendous work ethic. While the following article about handbag designer Eric de Kolb reflects someone with a completely different lifestyle, there is a commonality between the two men—other than the accordion-sided bag—that we did not expect to uncover.

Eric de Kolb, The Accordion-Sided Bag, and His Mysterious Past

Eric de Kolb was a fashion designer, surrealist artist, sculptor, jewelry designer, and upscale packaging designer. He was born in 1910 in Austria and given the name Erich Egon Kolb. He later moved to France, where he was a clothing designer. When he first came to the US in 1940, he designed apparel and handbags. Our initial goals in researching Mr. de Kolb were to find out more about his short-lived bag business, and to see if we could establish a firm connection to Mr. Bogan and his company.

Black leather "accordion-sided" Bogan bag on the left, red reptile Eric de Kolb "accordion-sided" bag on the right. Both from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 

Bogan on the left, de Kolb on the right. The general construction of these bags is nearly identical, but the faux tortoise accordion sides are slightly different, as is the stud hardware. More photos of the de Kolb bag below.

Before we continue with that which we learned about Mr. de Kolb, we must share that, based on our extensive research of genealogy records and other documents, much of what you read online about him is inaccurate. Some of it is minor—for instance, his date of birth is often misstated as 1916—which, like other information, is likely due to a single erroneous statement, which was repeated without fact-checking. Other portions of his history are inconsistencies and inaccuracies that are much more significant.

Eric de Kolb is said to have worked in the 1930s as a fashion designer for houses such as Balenciaga, Patou and Lucien LeLong. (All still in business; we reached out to them but they did not reply.) 

He married his first wife Rosa in 1939 in France. War broke out later that year. Eric and Rose de Kolb (then known as Erich and Rosa Kolb) emigrated to the US in September 1940 on the ship Exochorda, sailing out of Lisbon, Portugal. Also traveling on the Exochorda were Anna Rauschning and her five children. Anna’s husband Hermann Rauschning (1887-1982) was a German politician and member of the Nazi party who became an author and activist against Nazism. Mr. Rauschning emigrated to the US, eventually settling in Portland, Oregon. He was not on the Exochorda, but followed his wife and children to the US shortly after their journey. 

According to Albrecht Hagemann’s 2018 book “Hermann Rauschning: Ein deutsches Leben zwischen NS-Ruhm und Exil” (“Hermann Rauschning: A German life between Nazi fame and exile”), the Exochorda was where Eric met Anna and Hermann’s daughters Heilwig, 25,  and Luise, 24 (nicknamed “Ise”), and offered them jobs. Hagemann wrote (translated from German): “Heilwig and Ise took part in a company run by Eric de Kolb, their acquaintance from Exochorda. As a capable designer, de Kolb tried his hand at designing and producing fashionable handbags. Handsome as he was, both Heilwig and Ise had fallen in love with Eric. Ise ultimately decided the developing love triangle for herself; she married her crush in 1947.” 

Per everything we read online prior to finding his naturalization documents and the ship Exochorda’s 1940 manifest, we were under the impression that he was married twice, first to Louise Rauschning (Americanized from “Luise”), then to Elvira Esterhazy. This is not so. His first wife, as we stated above, was Rosa Kolb. Mrs. Kolb changed her name to “Rose,” Mr. Kolb changed “Erich” to “Eric,” and, in 1941, the couple took on the surname “de Kolb” (sometimes spelled with an uppercase “De”).

This explains why an October 1940 US newspaper article about the recently emigrated fashion designer and his wife refers to them as Mr. and Mrs. “Kolb,” and not “de Kolb.” The woman in the newspaper photo with him is Rose, the first wife who is never mentioned in his online biographies.

The 1940 article, published a month after they emigrated to the US, says the couple were “refugees” from Paris. This is likely true as eight to ten million refugees were trying to leave France after the Nazi invasion. This article also calls Mr. (de) Kolb "thoroughly French," and says Mrs. (de) Kolb worked out the details to get them from France to the US.

Three decades later, in a 1970 newspaper article, Mr. de Kolb was quoted as saying he received an interim passport and US visa from the US embassy in Paris, so that he could design dresses for a US department store. By May 1940, a month before Paris was taken over by the Nazis, the US embassy had moved 195 miles south from Paris to Vichy.  Per the Exochorda's manifest, the de Kolbs had, in fact, secured their passports in Paris in May 1940, then arrived to US from Lisbon, Portugal in September 1940. During WWII, Portugal had become a safe haven for refugees. 

The Exochorda gives the couple's shared Quota Immigrant Visa (QIV) number on its manifest. QIVs were a per-country limited admission system created by the US. Unless we are mistaken, there is no indication of a special visa or passport. The couple had a sponsor to the US, “Rene Lidz.” Based on Mr. de Kolb's naturalization documents, we believe this was a misspelling of Rene Silz (b. 1891-d. 1960), an importer/exporter/interior designer who emigrated to the US from France in 1913, and served in the US Army in WWI. Mr. Silz lived in New York, but frequently traveled because of his work. According to a 1940 newspaper article, Mr. Silz was in Paris when it fell to the Nazis. (He escaped in July 1940 on the ship SS Exeter, sailing from Lisbon to New York.) It is unclear how Mr. Silz and Mr. de Kolb knew each other (documents cite them as friends), but we found Mr. Silz to be quite the character, with numerous mentions of him in newspaper articles and online documents. We are left to wonder if Mr. Silz used his connections to help Mr. de Kolb get fashion design work in the US.
 
Earliest Eric de Kolb handbag advertisement that we could find, 1942.
27 Sep 1942, Sun Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) Newspapers.com

Eric and Rose were still married when Rose de Kolb’s US naturalization process was finalized in 1946. By 1948, she was living in Reno, Nevada and had legally changed her name (which we are withholding for privacy). Rose, who had been working as a dealer in a casino, passed away in 1966 at age 51 in Reno. Her obituary mentions a sister living in France as her only surviving relative. 

Some sources cite Eric de Kolb as being Roman Catholic, as were his wives. He also incorporated Catholic themes into some of his art and jewelry designs. 

What is not widely known is that Eric de Kolb was of Jewish descent. 

His name on his 1910 birth certificate is Erich Egon Kolb. There is also a line on the birth certificate for his Hebrew name, “Jisrael” (Israel). His parents, Rudolf (b. 1873 in Hungary) and Margarethe (née Tonello, b. 1885 in Austria) Kolb, were killed in 1942 at the Maly Trostinets extermination camp in Belarus, two years after Eric, their only child, left France for the US. 

Rudolf and Margarethe Kolb’s last address, an apartment building, was most recently a hotel, which is now closed, and is located about ten minutes from the Jüdisches Museum Wien, the Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna.

In a 1970 St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper article it was reported that Eric de Kolb came from an “aristocratic Viennese” family and that his father and grandfather were art collectors. It may very well be that they collected art, and his family could’ve been wealthy. However, from what we learned by sifting through online documents, Eric de Kolb’s grandfather Simon Kolb was a butcher. His mother Margarethe’s father, Sigmund Tonello, owned a restaurant. 

As we’ve explained in previous articles we’ve written for The Vintage Purse Museum’s archives, handbag makers who emigrated to the US were quite often Jews fleeing circumstances related to escalating acts of antisemitism. Some of them changed details of their lives, including birth names, birth dates, and countries of origin. A number of relatives of these handbag makers told us they never spoke about what happened to them. This was because they were afraid, and some carried that fear their entire lives, even after they became US citizens. With what we know about his family’s traumatic history, it would be completely understandable if Mr. de Kolb invented or embellished a large part of his origin story.

In the 1970 newspaper article, Mr. de Kolb said that when he was young, he’d been recommended as a student to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. We reached out to the Academy to see if he’d ever been a student. He wasn’t, but they suggested we contact the Academy of Applied Arts, which employed the artist Otto König (b.1839-d.1920), under whom Mr. de Kolb said he’d studied. The Academy of Applied Arts was called Kunstgewerbeschule during this time. We contacted them and they told us they have no record of an Erich Kolb attending the school, but said it was possible that Mr. König had taken him on as a private student. Mr. de Kolb, who stated that he’d shown promise as an artist from a very young age, would’ve been approximately six years old at the time he became Mr. König’s student. (We also reached out to Ecole des Beaux-Arts, another school in France he was said to have attended, but did not receive a reply.)

At some point, he began calling himself Eric de Kolb-Wartenberg. In a 1959 newspaper article about his wife Louise’s sister Anne’s wedding, Eric and Louise were using the honorifics “Count” and “Countess.” (Mr. de Kolb was also occasionally referred to as “Baron.”) 

In the 1600s, there was a Count Kolb von Wartenberg of the House of Wartenberg in Germany. However, we could find no evidence that Mr. de Kolb was related to the Wartenbergs. The 1943 “Who’s Who in the East – Volume 16” says Eric de Kolb’s father was “Rudolph de Kolb-Wartenberg,” and his mother was “Margareta Turello (sic)-Borgia,” which seems to be a reference to the noble Spanish House of Borgia. The Who’s Who also lists Mr. de Kolb’s date of birth as 1916; but, as we stated before, his birth year was 1910. Many “Who’s Who” entries were traditionally submitted by the “who” in question, and were not fact-checked. (The Who's Who entry also says Eric de Kolb was an "indsl. design co. exec." and that he attended "Acad Art. Vienna, 1932," and "Graphic Inst., Vienna, 1937." We could only see a snippet of information from this 1943 directory as the full page was not accessible online.)

As to Mr. de Kolb’s handbag designs, we could not find ads for them past 1947. However, we found a 1949 New York State industrial directory listing him as proprietor of a handbag company on 404 4th Ave., New York City. (This looks to be a residential building in Brooklyn.) These directory listings may have been collected the year prior, so we suspect that he stopped designing handbags by 1948, shortly after he and Louise Rauschning married.

Three of Eric de Kolb's 1944 handbag patents, screenshot from Google books.

19 Dec 1944, Tue The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) Newspapers.com

We found his 1944 handbag patents, as well as a number of 1942-1947 Eric de Kolb bag advertisements and references in trade publications. Eric de Kolb designed many different styles of handbags, using materials such as fabric, leather, reptile, and wood. He is arguably best known by today’s vintage handbag collectors for his accordion-sided handbag. 

Eric de Kolb red reptile "accordion-sided" bag, circa 1946. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

21 Jul 1946, Sun The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) Newspapers.com

Bag above, opened. The lining is navy blue, green, and yellow satin.

Eric de Kolb label inside bag. There is no evidence that these were made in France. It's more likely an indication of where the designer was from. The coat of arms is similar to the Kolb family's official coat of arms, but we could not identify it with certainty.


In the 1970 St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper article (which was about him and his jewelry), Mr. de Kolb told reporter Olivia Skinner (with regard to fashion design): “In France, a designer is something completely different from the designers here. In France, a designer does nothing but sketch and drape. I am not a pattern maker. In this country cutters are used to taking clothes apart and cutting directly from the pieces. I could find no cutters to make patterns from my designs. There was just no such animals around, so I said to the head of the department store, ‘Look sir, it makes no sense for me to stay and take the money from your pocket. And so I left.’” 

Many of the successful handbag makers that The Vintage Purse Museum has profiled began their careers as leather workers and/or pattern makers, with some continuing to have a hand in the crafting process even after they became company owners. By his own admission, Eric de Kolb was a designer rather than a manufacturer.

As we stated in the Bogan portion of this post, our theory is that Eric de Kolb's “accordion-sided” handbag design may have been produced with the de Kolb label in 1946 by the Bogan Handbag Company, a wholesale manufacturer. (We have also seen accordion-sided bags with both the Eric de Kolb label and the department store Bergdorf Goodman label.) It seems very possible that Mr. Bogan took over this style in 1947 and used his own label after Mr. de Kolb changed career paths. Again, this is speculation. However, we feel confident that, if this did occur, Mr. Bogan would have received Mr. de Kolb's permission. We also believe it is possible that Mr. Bogan manufactured other de Kolb handbag designs. While we don’t have concrete evidence of a business relationship, Mr. Bogan cited a drum-shaped bag design of Mr. de Kolb’s as a reference for the "Fanfare" handbag, which Mr. Bogan patented in 1949. 

After exiting the fashion world, Mr. de Kolb began designing upscale packaging for several companies. In the 1950 US Census, Eric de Kolb was an art director at an unnamed cosmetics firm, and his wife Louise also worked at a cosmetics firm as what appears to be “accessory director” (slightly difficult to make out on the census form). Most online sources say that Mr. de Kolb became art director for Helena Rubinstein in 1952, and later worked for Coty.

In the 1960s and 1970s he was known for his impressive collection of ancient art, later creating gold jewelry based on these pieces, and once again employing craftspeople to produce his designs. He is said to have had an industrial design firm, and that he once owned an art gallery in New York City. His magnificent surrealistic artwork can also be purchased online.

Louise Rauschning de Kolb passed away in July 1983. Eric de Kolb married Countess Elvira Alexandra Esterhazy in December 1983. (She was descended from a Hungarian royal family.) It appears they had been acquainted since at least 1964, as we found a New York Times article in which they, along with other prominent community members, attended a charitable event hosted by the Hungarian Catholic League of America. Eric de Kolb died in 2001 and Elvira Esterhazy died in 2023.

We could not locate any relatives of Eric de Kolb, but we did find a Rauschning family member. They were very kind, but couldn’t help in terms of what we wanted to know about Mr. de Kolb’s handbag business. This is understandable, as it only existed briefly in the 1940s, with the documentation likely lost, and the people who would’ve been part of it now deceased. 

We know that our findings are quite different than that which is currently online about Eric de Kolb. Our intention is not to impugn anyone’s legacy or reputation. Please remember that we started this journey simply because we wanted to know more about a specific handbag. What we’ve presented here doesn’t change the fact that Eric de Kolb was a masterful creator of designs in a number of industries and mediums, and his work remains desirable and collectible.

While we couldn’t make a definitive link between Mr. de Kolb and Mr. Bogan, we’ll keep trying to find documentation and will update this post if we do. As an artist, designer, and bon vivant, Mr. de Kolb certainly lived a life in the spotlight, while Mr. Bogan was more of a behind-the-scenes family man, craftsman and artisan, whose skills were a testament to a quality product. 

Special thanks to the Bogan family. Thanks also to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, The Academy of Applied Arts, and the Musée de l'Armée. Other resources used were Google and Familysearch.org, as well as Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. This article c2024 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Please do not use photos or content from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.

12 Dec 1947, Fri Evening World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska) Newspapers.com 10 Sep 1950, Sun Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

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