Humans have used receptacles for coins ever since they have had money to carry, and in different periods have kept coins in a larger purse or bag, along with whatever other personal items were needed for daily life. Until the late Tudor period, men and women kept valuables and personal belongings in bags or pouches suspended from a girdle around their waist.

However, under Elizabeth I dress became rigid and formal: breeches and skirts grew wide and coin purses and other small articles were easily hidden among voluminous folds, rendering traditional girdle pouches outdated. Only ornate ceremonial versions or specialised huntsman’s bags survived during the 1600s and 1700s, along with the Highlander’s ‘sporran’.

Otherwise, fashionable men carried soft leather pouches inside their breeches, for money, keys, seals, mirror, comb, tobacco and, later, snuff box, while ladies hung a tasselled or embroidered drawstring pouch beneath their skirts, these sometimes evolving into capacious pockets. Some also carried small leather or fabric ‘sweet bags’ for scented herbal sachets and essences, or purses for loose coins, special gaming purses containing counters for gambling.

Bags made ideal gifts, containing money or as sentimental presents, and as home needlecrafts advanced ladies gave hand-made purses and bags to favoured gentlemen. In the late 1700s the long tubular wallet, stocking or ‘miser’ purse became fashionable, while narrow neoclassical gowns of the early 1800s inspired the fabric reticule (or ‘ridicule’) bag, for carrying diverse items, from sandwiches to letters and writing tablets. Dainty knitted, knotted, beaded or embroidered reticules remained popular in the early-Victorian era, either drawstring or metal-framed, but were superseded during the mid–late 1800s by flat chatelaine bags hung from the waist and new ranges of leather bags for different occasions, including travel, holidays and visiting. Coloured leather, velvet and even fur-covered handbags ideally matched different outfits, kid and green morocco the height of 1890s fashion and a ‘matinée bag’ carrying purse, opera glasses, biscuit case, scent bottle and perhaps a powder puff.

Cosmetics advanced significantly in the early-20th century and during the 1920s chic pochette or clutch bags held in their lining pocket a mirror or vanity case, face powder, lip salve/lipstick and even eye shadow, while exotic evening purses sometimes carried cigarettes and cigarette holder. Smart handbags remained essential between the 1930s and 1950s, a matching bag still considered an important element of the formal co-ordinated outfit.