Too much is never enough! That might well have been the Victorian decorator's creed, and if you look at a true Victorian home, you'll find there's a richness of layering of pattern on pattern, collections everywhere, souvenirs and needlework and paintings, all coalescing into a lovely style we think of simply as Victorian. This needlepoint and beadwork pouch would have fit right into the overall decor, and is a perfect addition if you're a Victorian home owner (you lucky person - all those beautiful old Victorian homes!) it will surely be perfect to grace a spot in your antique home. This is a rather large wall hanging beadwork valet of sorts. Some would tell you it's for newspapers or mail, and I suppose that makes some sense to our modern understanding of daily life. But in Victorian times the fashion was to have needlework and beadwork slippers. You've probably seen the slipper forms worked in needlepoint but not yet made up into slippers. I must have 30 pairs of them in my own stash - some with foxes, others with the most elaborate and charming floral embroidery. But before I digress further, allow me to complete the thought: this pouch would have hung at a bedside or perhaps beside a favorite lounge chair and would have held one's beadwork or needlepoint slippers at the ready. It's a slipper pouch. Isn't it fabulous! This one is particularly beautiful with the thick raised beadwork and the paisley forms. It's also in remarkably fine condition. I can see someone using it for a myriad of things, from sewing to mail to bath vanity items, but in its finest calling, it would hold your slippers.
Very good to excellent condition throughout. This is the finest example of one of the old slipper caddies I've ever found. The heavy glass beadwork and fine wool and silk needlepoint are all in remarkably good form for a piece well over 160 years old, and even the backing is excellent. There are some large pearls at centers of the beadwork, and a few stitches gone perhaps, a little bead trim here or there - look it over well in our nearly-life-size photos. No surprises. No odors, and ready to be put to use as art, function or decorative element in your own home. I hope someone who collects and makes up those old slippers will end up with this one. I have a dream of one day sewing up all of mine into pairs of Victorian slippers and lining the interior of a vitrine with nothing but those gorgeous old beadwork and needlepoint shoes. Can't you just see it? One day!
