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1950s woven metal bag, no maker tag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Similar bag pictured in the 1957 advertisement directly below. 10 Feb 1957, Sun Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Newspapers.com |
Inventor Kurt Goldstrom and The 1950s-1960s Woven Metal Box Bag Trend
What started out as a simple pictorial by The Vintage Purse Museum became a bigger story once we began researching Kurt Goldstrom, who, in 1947, filed a detailed patent for a woven metal basket. In 1949, Mr. Goldstrom was granted patent number 2,486,838, likely not knowing that within just a few years his invention would evolve to become a popular handbag trend.
Be sure to scroll all the way down for historical information, as well as examples of these woven metal bags, corresponding newspaper ads, and later handbag designs by Mr. Goldstrom, plus a bonus screenshot at the very end of this post.
(Note: There were several other Kurt Goldstroms, including a gentleman born in 1913, who was famous for being an anaplastologist, maker of prosthetic eyes for wounded veterans.)
Mr. Goldstrom's younger brother Walter, also a butcher, joined him later that year. In 1937, Kurt Goldstrom married Anna Hene (b. 1909). Anna (later changed to "Anne") was a "knitting stylist," and had arrived in the US from Germany in 1934. Kurt and Anne were granted US citizenship in 1940, and subsequently had two children.
Other popular bags of the era that were similar in style to the woven metal type consisted of filigree metal with plastic tops, and those with a metal rod body that was interwoven with plastic or leather. Below are a few examples from our collection, as well as ads for similar handbags.
22 Mar 1964, Sun The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) Newspapers.com
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| Kurt Goldstrom's US naturalization application photo, screenshot from Familysearch.org |
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| Anna Hene Goldstrom's US naturalization application photo, screenshot from Familysearch.org. |
Soon after he became a US citizen, Mr. Goldstrom was required to register for the military. His 1940 draft card says he was working for Royal Kosher Provision Co. on Boston Rd. in the Bronx, presumably as a butcher.
Mr. Goldstrom ultimately left this profession to become proprietor of Aluminum Handicraft Co. According to the 1953 Industrial Directory of New York State, Aluminum Handicraft Co. was located at 1752 Morris Ave. The directory listing said that the company made "metal-weave handbags, metal-weave planters, hampers, baskets and novelties." Interestingly, we found a 1948 classified advertisement in a Buffalo, New York Polish-language newspaper that showed the same address as the location of Allied Metal Spinning. We wondered if Mr. Goldstrom had worked for this company after WWII, or perhaps bought them out and then occupied the space with his own business.
We reached out to Kurt and Anne's children (names withheld for privacy). One of them kindly shared invaluable information about their father via email, including how he came to own a company that made woven metal items.
They wrote: "...he left Germany in 1935 for the U.S. to escape the Nazi takeover. After managing to get somewhat established, the war caught up with him, and as a naturalized American citizen he was drafted, wounded in Normandy, and lost most of the use of his right hand. As part of occupational therapy, he tried basket-weaving. Inspired, and entirely on his own, he figured out all the aspects of the design, manufacture, and distribution of the metal woven baskets and bags."
The Vintage Purse Museum found the 1945 newspaper article below, detailing Mr. Goldstrom's military service and how he got his injuries.
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| April 24, 1945, The (Springfield, MA) Morning Union, clipped via paid subscription to Newspapers.com. |
The Vintage Purse Museum had some familiarity with the occupational therapy provided to wounded WWII veterans, as we'd explored it in our article The Weavers: Spinning a Yarn. This piece focused on the art of weaving fabric and how it related to handbags. There were other industrial arts taught by hospital volunteers to assist with veterans' rehabilitation, including woodcrafting, leatherworking, and basket weaving, as shared in the snippet of a 1944 article below.
Without his child's input, we likely never would've known that this form of therapy was the impetus for Mr. Goldstrom's invention. In order to see how Mr. Goldstrom translated the process of straw weaving into metal weaving, one has to take a look at his patent. Below are his sketches and some of the patent's text, but the entire patent application shows the complexity of the invention.
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| Summary of Mr. Goldstrom's patent, screenshot from Google books. |
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| Sketch from Mr. Goldstrom's patent, screenshot from the Official Gazette of the US Patent Office. |
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Same patent, showing the handle on the basket. Screenshot from Google patents.
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Kurt Goldstrom's child also wrote in their email to The Vintage Purse Museum: "Aluminum Handicraft was the first company name that my father used for gift baskets, waste baskets, manicure trays, and other functional woven baskets. This evolved with his handbag inspirations and went under the name of Goldstrom or Dorset Rex who was the distributor for several years."
The Vintage Purse Museum's curator has seen many Dorset Rex woven metal bags, including some with Kurt Goldstrom's patent number stamped on them. It's unclear if Dorset Rex was a licensed patent assignee of Mr. Goldstrom's and produced these bags at the Dorset Rex plant, or if Mr. Goldstrom made them at at his own factory for Dorset Rex, which then placed their own labels inside. The use of the word "distributor" in Mr. Goldstrom's child's email indicates the latter, although both options are possible. (Note: In documents, newspaper articles, advertisements, etc., "Dorset Rex" is written with and without a hyphen. We're leaving it unhyphenated in this article for uniformity.)
Some patents have assignees listed on the application. Mr. Goldstrom's does not, which is why we are leaning toward him having a contract with Dorset Rex and possibly other handbag companies.
The earliest newspaper ad we could find for a woven metal handbag was from 1952, and does not mention a maker. (Ad directly below.) However, the ad states that the bag came with a compact and comb, so this could have been a Goldstrom collaboration with Dorset Rex, which was also a cosmetic accessories' maker.
Pictured below is The Vintage Purse Museum's Dorset Rex-labeled woven metal bag, with molded plastic top. Based on what we've seen for sale online, as well as old newspaper ads, those with plastic tops appear to be the most common of the basket-style woven-metal handbags sold from about 1952 to 1964. Advertisements alternately refer to the tops as "shell" or "Lucite" (with both upper- and lower-case "L"). As we explained in our article about plastics used in handbags from the 1930s-1970s, "shell" and "Lucite" (a Dupont trade name) became generic marketing terms often used to describe a type of plastic that was neither material.
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| Dorset Rex woven metal bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. It is very shiny and reflective, so it is somewhat distorted in the photograph. |
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| Top of bag above. |
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Label inside bag above. 22 Nov 1955, Tue Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Newspapers.com 20 Nov 1958, Thu The Greenville News (Greenville, South Carolina) Newspapers.com |
Dorset Rex is arguably the best-known maker of these bags. However, there are many vintage woven metal bags for sale today without labels, as well as some with labels or imprints of other handbag makers, including Majestic, Goldcrest, Etra, Romo, MW, Stylecraft, and Kerrybrooke (a Sears brand).
While Dorset Rex and Majestic Metal Specialties, Inc. were both metal fabricators, and may have had the capability to produce these bags at their own factories, it is quite possible that these two companies, along with the others, purchased their handbags wholesale from Kurt Goldstrom and then placed their own labels inside. Wholesale sourcing was common practice for many midcentury (and later) handbag makers, and encompassed numerous styles, which is why collectors will see the same or similar styles with different manufacturers' labels. Handbag makers also copied each other, which periodically led to design infringement lawsuits. In the case of woven metal handbags, we could find no documentation of litigation.
We cannot say with 100 percent certainty that Mr. Goldstrom produced all or most of these bags for every handbag maker that sold them. However, we firmly believe he was the originator of woven metal's use in handbag design, and that his company, Aluminum Handicraft Co., and Dorset Rex were contractually affiliated.
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| Woven metal picnic-style box bag by Majestic, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Imprint inside bag above. |
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Another woven metal Majestic bag, from the collection of The vintage Purse Museum. 1955 advertisement for a similar bag directly below. 24 Mar 1955, Thu Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) Newspapers.com |
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Silver metal and black plastic box bag with black plastic top, no maker tag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.
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| Original 1960s photo of woman holding a woven metal bag similar to the one above. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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"Tall" woven metal bag, no maker tag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 04 Dec 1957, Wed The Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) Newspapers.com |
Other popular bags of the era that were similar in style to the woven metal type consisted of filigree metal with plastic tops, and those with a metal rod body that was interwoven with plastic or leather. Below are a few examples from our collection, as well as ads for similar handbags.
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Filigree bag with plastic top, no maker tag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 05 Jun 1957, Wed The Houston Post (Houston, Texas) Newspapers.com |
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| Plastic, vinyl, and metal bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. No maker tag. |
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Unlabeled plastic, leather, and metal bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 14 Dec 1955, Wed Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, North Carolina) Newspapers.com |
The woven metal handbag trend began to wane in 1958, with newspaper ads showing them deeply discounted by stores. Bags that once sold for $10 to $15 were marked down to $4 to $6. Dorset Rex may have discontinued these handbags because this style was going out of favor.
However, the timing also coincides with company acquisitions and managerial changes that directly affected Universal Dorset Rex, which was based in Connecticut. It had been a subsidiary of Plume & Atwood Mfg. Co. (known primarily for manufacturing lamps). Then, in 1959, Dorset Rex merged with Landers, Frary & Clark. There's some conflicting information online with regard to who acquired whom, but old newspaper articles indicate that these company names were very much intertwined, and sometimes interchangeable. For instance, a 1959 article about Landers, Plume & Atwood's attempt to acquire Evans Case Co. (another well-known metal cosmetic compact maker) said: "Landers, Plume & Atwood, a division of Landers, Frary & Clark employs about 800. It markets its products under the Dorset Rex trade mark."
The company's name was changed six years later to Dorset Division, Landers, Frary & Clark. A 1965 Hartford Courant newspaper article said: "Established in 1869, the factory is now located in a modern one-story building of 150,000 square feet. Dorset division has complete facilities for manufacture of high production stampings and drawn shells of aluminum, brass, copper, steel or stainless steel. The division is completely equipped for secondary operations as well as finishing and assembly. Cosmetic containers, kerosene lamp burners and lamp parts are among standard parts made."
Dorset Rex went out of business in September 1971, and its building was taken over by cosmetic hardware manufacturer Risdon (incorporated in Waterbury, CT in 1910), which closed its doors in 2009.
After Dorset Rex discontinued its woven metal bag line, Kurt Goldstrom continued to market them in the early 1960s under his own name, with some labels and imprints reading "Goldstrom Original," and others "Goldstrom Fifth Ave." The earliest newspaper ad we could find for Goldstrom bags was dated 1960, and the most recent was from 1964.
He expanded his line to include many beautiful and highly collectible designs, most of which were trimmed in metal. The Vintage Purse Museum has a number of these, which we've photographed and shared below.
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Goldstrom Original bag with plastic top, wood-grain and black vinyl strips, and gold-colored metal accents. Fom the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 02 Mar 1962, Fri The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) Newspapers.com |
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| Goldstrom Original bag of bronze-colored "marshmallow" vinyl. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Label inside bag above. |
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| Goldstrom Original evening bag composed of gold-color lightweight brushed metal panels with rhinestones set in diamond shapes. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Black patent box bag with gold metal embellishments by Goldstrom Original. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. This bag appears in the lower left corner of the 1964 ad below. |
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| Imprint inside bag above. |
22 Mar 1964, Sun The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) Newspapers.comMr. Goldstrom was able to escape terrible circumstances in his homeland, then was wounded while in military service to his new country. He made the most of his rehabilitation from his injuries to become a true success story. Every time we look at a vintage woven metal handbag, we will remember the fortitude of inventor and entrepreneur Kurt Goldstrom.
Special thanks to the child of Kurt Goldstrom. Other resources used were MyHeritage.com and Newspapers.com, to which we have paid subscriptions, and FamilySearch.org and Google. This article c2025 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Please do not use photos or information from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.
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| Screenshot from the 2025 trailer for the film "Freakier Friday." It appears that actress Lindsay Lohan is carrying a woven metal bag. |
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