Accession Number

2008.010

Alternate Name

handbag

Description

A 14-karat gold mesh handbag set with: diamonds; green gemstones that are either olivines, Dermantoid garnets, or Tsavorite garnets; cabochon rubies, and; baroque (salt water) pearl pendants; the gold frame monogrammed “LD” for Laura Dunsmuir (Mrs. James Dunsmuir).

Narrative

This purse was once owned by Laura Dunsmuir (nee Surles), also known as Mrs. James Dunsmuir and used by her during the early 20th century. A purse like this one would have been a highly prized item to a middle and upper-class woman of the Gilded Age. Sometimes, purses like this one were suspended from a belt or skirt using a special hanger. An example of a gold-mesh purse with a hanger in the Newark Museum (New Jersey, U.S.A.) collection is illustrated in a photograph attached to this record. Another example is depicted in a photograph of Annie Euphemia Dunsmuir's sister-in-law (see: Craigdarroch Castle Collection 991.005.004).

History of Use

Laura Dunsmuir (nee Surles), also known as Mrs. James Dunsmuir, was born in North Carolina on February 13, 1858 and lived on Vancouver Island from 1876 until her death on August 3,1937 at Hatley Park, the Dunsmuir family home in Colwood that is now a designated Canadian National Historic Site. Mrs. Dunsmuir’s husband James, an industrialist, served as Premier (1900-1902) and Lieutenant-Governor (1906-1909) of British Columbia. The handbag would have been used first at their Victoria house Burleith (occupied by them until 1906), then at Government House (1906-1909) while her husband James was Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, and then finally at Hatley Park (1910-1937). The likelihood that she used the purse while attending the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902 is very high.

Following the death of Mrs. Dunsmuir in 1937, the handbag was inherited by her daughter, Laura Mary Dunsmuir, also known as “Maye” Bromley, who was living in the United Kingdom. It was subsequently passed down to May’s daughter, Elizabeth Bromley, who first married Sir Richard Algernon Frederick Hanbury-Tracy, 6th Baron Sudley of Toddington – AKA “Tiger”, and after his death, Major Sir Arthur James Robert Collins. When she died in 2006, it was passed to her sister Anne’s daughter, the late Arabella Andrup, from whom The Castle Society acquired it.

Date

circa 1900

Dimensions

14 x 11.5 cm

Material

Metal, gold; Stone, diamond; Stone, olivine; Stone, ruby; Pearl

Technique

Cast; Chased; Engraved

Inscription

engraved in fancy srip on back of frame:  LD 
stamped inside of frame:  14 carat