I have researched and read quite a bit about the Whiting & Davis mesh bag company. NO WHERE have I seen anything about making doll-sized purses, but that's what I think this is. I absolutely gasped when I first saw it. It has (or had) blue roses painted on both sides on a white or off-white background. Much of the paint is worn off, but every link is intact. In the metal mesh construction, and in the attachment to the top closure part, it's in perfect condition. I suppose most Whiting & Davis bags were probably lined. This one is not. 

I just don't see how a woman would have made any use of a bag this small. The mesh part of the bag is 3.25" x 2.5" 

I've shown it with a quarter and a soda can to emphasize how small it is. Also...I think it makes it more valuable because it seems like an extremely rare thing.---OK. Now, a couple of weeks later, I am putting in a couple of pix showing this purse with an American Girl doll for scale. For those of us who have a problem really imagining the dimensions of something like this, NOW you can see how it's kind of like a doll purse, right? And it's from back in the day when dolls were often this big! (This American Girl doll, Samantha, is NOT INCLUDED with the purse)