In the bag

Amsterdam's Museum of Handbags and Purses is a rare place. It offers an historical survey of Western bags and related accessories from pill boxes to luggage. On view are some 400 objects from a collection almost ten times that size. Most of the material was acquired by Hendrijke and Heinz Ivo, a married couple who began collecting in earnest 25 years ago, after he retired at 51 (he was president of the food division at Mars).

Tassen Museum

Sigrid Ivo, an art historian and daughter of the museum's founders, directs the foundation that now owns the collection and runs the museum. But this is no mere mom and pop affair. Here, in a very glamorous setting, the matter of handbags is taken seriously, stylishly and with a light touch. The museum occupies a double-fronted 17th-century house on the city's grandest canal, the Herengracht. Exhibits are displayed in chic, modern glass cases and lit as if each handbag or lipstick case was a jewel. A great many are.

There clearly have been a great many solutions to the problem of carrying around personal effects. But practicality is hardly a defining characteristic. Arranged chronologically, many of these bags are imaginative, witty and charming. Some express wanderlust: one series of early 20th-century bags features exotic places, from Mount Fuji (on aqua suede) to Egyptian friezes (embossed on leather and colourfully painted). Others employ unusual techniques, such as several captivating French neoclassical evening bags made of white moulded papier-mâché. An English “opera bag” from 1906 comes complete with fitted opera glasses and a fan. Lively school lunch-boxes are painted with storybook characters.

There are 19th-century letter cases and quite a few 1950s Lucite handbags. One red patent-leather bag looks like an oversized push-button phone with the receiver as its handle. Some purses are shown with matching shoes. The very first object on display—the oldest in the collection—proves that man bags are nothing new. It is a 16th-century pouch made of creamy white kid skin. The surface is decorated with rosettes and 18 tiny pockets of the same soft leather. It was probably made for a travelling merchant. At the time men's clothes did not have pockets, and the bag provided a quickly accessible sorting system for multiple currencies, each pocket reserved for the coins of a particular city.

The museum also regularly organises special exhibitions. “Beastie Bags”, a show on view until August 23rd, features pieces in the shape of animals or created from their skin, scales or feathers. One woven cane bag comes in the shape of a rather woeful dog; another bag is covered with peacock feathers and has a silver stag clasp. The next show, “Made in Britain” (from September 7th to February 21st 2010), will include pieces by Alexander McQueen and Lulu Guinness.

More than 100,000 people have visited the museum since it opened in June 2007, and the collection continues to grow. Gifts have been coming in, such as “It” bags from the big fashion houses or treasures from individuals seeking a home for family heirlooms. Visitors need not leave empty-handed: work by top Dutch handbag designers, including Hester van Eeghen, is for sale in the museum shop.