17th century frog purse- done!

I finished something during my vacation! And a UFO of long standing too- namely the 17th century frog
purse. I fell in this frog purse five(!) years ago and decided I wanted to make one. Apparently, frog
purses were quite a thing in 17th century England, and there are several extant ones. You can see a
post about them here.

I almost finished mine, but then I realised the back legs were too heavy and long, and I balked at re-making them. Until now.

It’s not a perfect replica of the original one. For one I had very few construction details, so I had to
guess a lot. What I did know was the measurements of the body, and how the legs and arms were
made, as well as the stitched on the body and the eyes. I tried to follow that as close as possible.

The body was made in green silk taffeta covered with needlepoint stitches made from gilt silk twist.
It’s padded with felt.

The arms and legs are made of wire and very thin millinery wire, which was first covered with linen
thread to bulk them up, and then they were covered with gold thread.

The eyes were made of vintage glass beads.

I attached the arms and legs on the front, then lines both front and back with gold silk taffeta, before
sewing it together. I still need to find a suitable cord.

It’s very small- I guess I could fit a lipstick inside it. Maybe.

17th century frog purses

I was idly looking through a book I have on embroidery, when I stubled on this deligtful little frog.

Asmolean Museum

Another view.

It is dated to the 17th century and is made of needlepoint stitches in silk and metal threads on green silk over a stiffer foundation, probably leather and decoated with coiled gold wire and glass beades. The legs are made out of wire and silk thread. It has an inner bag made of cream silk. It is small, 7.5X6 cm and was probably used for carrying around a scented satchet. I found it completely adorable and after a quick search on the Net I realised that it isn't the only around. It seems to have been quite a trend to carry around a decorative froggy. Sadly there are no pictures of the underside, but it looks mottled due to green silk floss in patches.

Another 17th century frog ingold thread and yellow taffeta with a cord drawstring 

 

Royal Collection Trust

A back view

A sweetmeat purse, dated 1601-1630, made in yellow, lime green, pink, tan silk thread and gold metallic thread. 



Source

This one is padded and covered with silver gilt thread in a detached button hole stitch. The wire legs are padded and covered with embroidery as well.

Museum of London

Neddle case frog in silk and metallic thread.

LACMA

Another view

As you can see the museums gives the bags different purposes, for scented bags, candy of needles. All of tehse may apply, I think the main purpose was really to wear it as a kind of jewelry. regardless, I felt a strong and urgent need to have a frog purse on my own and as I have long wanted to try goldwork, I thinka frog purse would be the ideal thing to make.