Art Deco Metal Mesh Purse

Between 1920 -1930

In a study of symmetry, this purse presents sleek lines and geometric shapes on a canvas of metal. The black, white, and grey purse’s bag is made from metal mesh painted with large inverted chevrons and smaller diamonds subdivided into sections of color. The points of five pentagons along the purse’s bottom pick up the diamond theme, as does the double row of diamonds on the purse’s shiny silver frame. Ingeniously, the clasp fits into a geometric steppe, whose shape is echoed in the holders for its serpentine metal chain. A synthetic, satin-weave fabric lines the purse’s interior. The evening bag belonged to renowned scholar-librarian Dorothy Porter Wesley (1905-1995), who organized and developed an unparalleled collection rooted in African American history that would become the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University in Washington, DC.