1950s "Persian" Print Purses - A Pictorial Peek Into the Past
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| Persian print handbag by Tino of Palm Beach, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. This company's formal business name was "Tino Products, Inc.," est. 1948, dissolved 1968. |
The Vintage Purse Museum has a wonderful sub-collection of "Persian print" handbags, many of which we are sharing here. We initially intended for this post to primarily be a pictorial, but we managed to discover some interesting facts relating to this trend.
While we don't know what led to their pinnacle of popularity in the early- to mid-1950s, we found some foreshadowing in this snippet from a 1936 "Shop With Sue" newspaper column, in which Sue does not seem happy about it.
Despite this "ghastly" 1930s heads-up, the term "Persian prints" is found in US newspaper advertisements for a variety of products of the 1890s-1930s, with ads for Persian print apparel appearing as early as the 1920s.
The history of this fabric is examined in the 1925 article "Chintz in Retrospect," which appeared in the publication "Good Furniture and Decoration." It says that Persian print chintz (a type of cotton) was based on fabrics originally made in India and Persia (now known as Iran), specifically the cities of Tehran and Isfahan, and usually seen on prayer mats and towels.
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| A sample of 18th century hand-blocked Persian fabric print from the article "Chintz in Retrospect" in the 1925 issue of Good Furniture and Decoration, screenshot via Google Books. |
"Persian" is just one name by which this style of print was known, with cotton being the most common type of fabric used in the manufacture of handbags. These prints were alternately called Egyptian, Indian, Oriental, Javanese, Eastern, Siamese, and other terms that were considered "exotic" for US marketing purposes, and would not be used today. For this article, we're generically referring to these fabrics as "Persian prints," which was their most common designation.
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| Left: Very small Persian print pouch-style bag with unusual goldtone handle. Right: Same bag, opened. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 1943 newspaper ad for a "flat envelope" Persian print clutch similar in shape to our 1940s clutch pictured at the top of the photo below this ad. |
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| Top, 1940s flat clutch with back strap, and matching mirror covered in the same fabric. Center, 1950s coin purse. Bottom, envelope-style clutch. All unlabeled, and all from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
While many of these designs had a distinct Asian or Middle Eastern flair, vintage advertising indicates that some florals and paisleys were also considered "Persian" or one of the other geography-related marketing monikers of the day.
The words "Persian print" for handbags appeared in advertisements as early as the 1910s. Ads with sketches of bags that looked much like the ones in our collection started appearing around 1939 and were sold throughout the 1940s. However, the majority of ads we found for Persian print bags were dated from about 1951-1956, extending into 1960, albeit fewer at that time. This was quite the successful run.
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Unlabeled Persian or "Egyptian" (per the ad below with same design) print bag from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 05 Jun 1955, Sun The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia) Newspapers.com |
Some of the bags in our collection appear to be from the 1940s, while most are more than likely from the 1950s. These '50s prints were not just on handbags, but also used in the manufacture of shoes, accessories, apparel, and home decor.
Persian prints were available in a variety of materials, including rayon, crepe, silk, and the aforementioned cotton. This fabric was made into household items such as bedspreads, tablecloths, and doilies, as well as personal accessories, including scarves and handkerchiefs. Women's robes and dresses in Persian prints started trending in the 1930s, but coordinating bags and shoes arrived on the fashion scene a bit later. Persian prints were also found in men's apparel and neckties, and Persian print fabric was sold to home crafters.
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Example of a Persian print-covered double card-deck case that can also be used as a small clutch bag. Unlabeled, but we were able to attribute this design to Harvey Tatelman of Claire Fashions. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 18 Dec 1951, Tue Syracuse Herald-Journal (Syracuse, New York) Newspapers.com |
One widely-used handbag print was attributable to fabric wholesaler Amity Mills. We stumbled across an ad in the January 1955 edition of the trade publication "Handbags & Accessories" and had a bit of an "ah ha!" moment when we saw it. (Photo of ad directly below.)
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| Ad for La France handbags and Amity Mills from the January 1955 edition of Handbags & Accessories magazine, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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Variety of unlabeled bags with the fabric that appears in the La France/Amity Mills ad shown above. Top left and right, clutch bags. Bottom left, hard-sided handbag. Bottom right, plastic-lined cosmetic travel bag with matching tissue holder. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 04 Feb 1955, Fri The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) Newspapers.com 19 Feb 1956, Sun The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Newspapers.com |
Amity Silk Corporation was incorporated in 1919 in New Jersey, and was later registered as a business in New York in 1929. It became Amity Mills, Inc. in 1954, then began using the name Amity Fabrics, Inc. in 1956. Per one online document, the reason for the 1956 name change to "Amity Fabrics" was that it better represented the company as an importer rather than a manufacturer.
Amity Fabrics, Inc. was listed inactive as of 1993 in a business name database, but we believe it closed prior to that. (There is a current Amity Textiles in New York, but it does not appear to be connected to Amity Fabrics. There was also a well-known unrelated Wisconsin company called Amity Leather Products.)
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Collapsible silk or rayon bag by Lujean, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Similarly patterned shoe and matching Lujean bags in the ad below, with the print identified as "cloisonne tones on a fabric that looks like petitpoint." 09 May 1951, Wed The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) Newspapers.com |
We found a 1940 United States Tariff Commission book titled "Post-war Imports and Domestic Production of Major Commodities," indicating that Persian print fabric in the previous year (1939) came from "British India." This substantiates the 1925 reference (mentioned earlier in this post) to Persian prints originally being made in India or Persia.
In 1949, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had a "round" of negotiations that reduced textile tariffs, which was alleged to have had a negative financial impact on US textile manufacturers. (We've previously written about the 1967 round of GATT that adversely affected US handbag makers.) Also in 1949, US fabric importers were said to have been bringing in most of their products from Europe and Japan. Among the highest imports of fabrics to the US were those from Italy, which was known for its luxury textiles for centuries, but experienced a post-WWII resurgence due to the implementation of the Marshall Plan.
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Pair of Persian print clutch bags with interior compartments, shown closed on the left and open on the right. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 06 Apr 1951, Fri The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) Newspapers.com |
So, which country produced Persian prints at their peak? Here's what we learned, which unfortunately doesn't give a definitive answer.
India: Per a chart published by the US Department of Agriculture, India had no textile exports to the US from 1950-1954, which excludes India as a source of these fabrics.
Iran (Persia): It was reported in 1949 that Iran's cotton industry (raw cotton production as well as textiles) was going through a "very difficult period of postwar adjustment." Part of the problem was the run-down condition of its textile production facilities and equipment. After investments in Iran's economic development, according to the 1962 publication, "A Market for US Products," cotton was one of Iran's top crops, and textiles was its second largest industry, with Isfahan still cited as its capital of textile production. However, we could not find adequate documentation proving that 1950s Persian print fabrics were imported to the US from Iran.
Japan: In 1953, Japan was the world's leading cotton textile importer, per the 1956 document "Investment in Japan - Basic Information for United States Businessmen," published by the US Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Eastern Division. The document goes on to say that, "In 1955, because of the increase in textiles in Japan, American textile producers complained that they were being injured." We don't know if the injury—meaning financial damage—included the importation of Persian prints.
Italy: In a 1959 precedent-setting legal dispute with US customs, we learned that Amity Fabrics had imported a twill-backed velveteen from the Cantoni cotton mill of Castellanza, Italy. This does not mean they were also importing Persian print cottons from Italy.
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| Pair of Persian print bags, one cage style and one box style, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. UPDATE: Bag on the left has a faint imprint that looks to be that of Majestic. Special thanks to our Instagram friend Zsa Zsa Mattson, who noticed its similarity to a sketch in a newspaper ad for Majestic bags, which led to our closer scrutiny of its lining and the discovery of the maker name. |
There is, of course, much more to the topic of imports and exports. We reiterate that we don't know exactly where Persian print fabrics were being produced during their peak in the 1950s, or the name of every US company that was manufacturing or importing them. There were certainly multiple fabric mills and wholesalers both in and outside of the US, and Amity was more than likely not the only one wholesaling Persian prints to handbag makers. Additionally, Amity may not have had an exclusivity agreement with its overseas supplier(s), and was possibly importing the same or similar fabrics from the same European or Asian sources as other US fabric wholesalers.
We know of at least one other US textile manufacturer of Persian prints. A 1951 issue of the trade publication American Fabrics stated that fabric giant The Springs Cotton Mills, maker of Springmaid fabrics, had unveiled its own Persian print. The 1952 Springmaid fabric ad directly below (clipped from Newspapers.com) also appeared in color in Life magazine featuring the same actress, Vivian Blaine (1921-1995), in the same pose, with a different background and the caption "We put the 'broad' in broadcloth," as part of Springmaid's "risque" ad series. It's unclear if The Springs Cotton Mills also sold its wares to bag makers, but it certainly would've been beneficial to them while the trend lasted.
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| 22 Feb 1952, Fri Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee) Newspapers.com |
The terminology didn't entirely disappear once the Persian print handbag trend was over. In the 1960s, "Persian print" was sometimes used to describe "carpet" bags made of tapestries, "cut velvets," and other textured or woven fabrics.
The Vintage Purse Museum recently saw a 1960s-1970s straw (wicker) handbag for sale online with a Persian print panel glued to its front. We do not own this bag so we can't show you a photo of it, but, in our opinion, it's likely that the US company that imported this bag from Hong Kong used Persian print fabric left over from years earlier to decorate it.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were newspaper advertisements for "Persian print" leather handbags by several different bag manufacturers.
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Trio of 1960s Persian print-style bags made of tapestry fabric. Left and center by Morris Moskowitz; right by Kadin. 20 Nov 1960, Sun Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York) Newspapers.com |
We may be a bit biased, but we think the 1950s were the best years for Persian print handbags. As we all know, fashion is cyclical, so perhaps the trend will come back some day. Keep scrolling for more photos of our bags and newspaper ads featuring Persian prints.
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Persian print box bag, no maker tag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 14 Apr 1951, Sat Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) Newspapers.com |
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| Asian-motif fold-over clutch by St. Thomas, a company primarily known for its wallets. Next to it is a brooch with similar motif. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Wholesale ad for Lowy and Mund/Edwards "Oriental" print bag from the January 1955 issue of the trade publication Handbags & Accessories. This bag also shows human figures that we've seen in embossed leather bags from the same era. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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Trio of different Persian print patterned bags, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Center bag is similar to the sketches in the advertisement below. 04 May 1954, Tue Nashville Banner (Nashville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com |
04 May 1954, Tue Elmira Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) Newspapers.com.jpeg) |
| Floral rayon bag that may have fallen into the category of Persian prints. No maker tag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
13 Apr 1951, Fri The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia) Newspapers.com.jpeg) |
Persian print pouch-style rayon or silk bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 16 May 1951, Wed Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com 05 Nov 1959, Thu The Peninsula Times Tribune (Palo Alto, California) Newspapers.com 02 Jun 1960, Thu Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Newspapers.com |
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