AUTHENTICITY GUARANTEE: We guarantee the authenticity of all our items
Judith Leiber Metal Gold Evening BAG: Vintage
Be sure to add us to your favorites list! Check out other items!
Judith Leiber's ideas for her bags come from a variety of sources. Arguably, little is invented ex nihilo in Leiber's work, but is instead understood and applied from other arts. She acknowledges her love of finding objects in museums and even the objects in paintings that lend themselves to her imaginative formation as the handbag, realizing the capability of an object to serve as a container. This gorgeous Minaudiere was inspired by an Ottoman/Greek Palaska gun powder cartridge box, a military accessory used in the 18th - 19th century. (last photo shown here for reference only)
Her minaudiere designs cover all the major art movements. This gorgeous Leiber minaudiere from 1969 was inspired by the Art Nouveau* art movement.
* Art Nouveau: The distinguishing ornamental characteristic of Art Nouveau is its undulating, asymmetrical line, often taking the form of flower stalks and buds, vine tendrils, insect wings, and other delicate and sinuous natural objects; the line may be elegant and graceful or infused with a powerfully rhythmic and whip like force.
After 1910 Art Nouveau appeared old-fashioned and limited and was generally abandoned as a distinct decorative style. In the 1960s, however, the style was rehabilitated, in part, by major exhibitions organized at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1959. The exhibition elevated the status of the movement, which had often been viewed by critics as a passing trend, to the level of other major Modern art movements of the late 19th century. In the popular domain, the flowery organic lines of Art Nouveau were revived as a new psychedelic style in fashion. It was at this time that Judith Leiber was slowly graduating from her skin and fabric bags to metal form minaudieres. She combined the Art Nouveau style into her metal forms in this minaudiere.
Style Notes: Carry this minaudiere as an evening bag with a classic black shift dress, black suede pumps and a high hairstyle, ringing back the Art noveau style into your style...
About Judith Leiber
No two Judith Leiber clutches are alike, each a fanciful creation meant to be carried, discussed and admired. Since 1963, Leiber has approached evening bags - jeweled, embellished, sculpted or classically traditional - with the same attention to detail and construction as the couturiers do clothes. To wit, the bags have been carried by First Ladies and Hollywood royalty alike, and are on permanent display in the world's finest museums.
While hardly rebellious-looking by today’s standards, Art Nouveau has roots as a protest movement. The Industrial Revolution spurred distaste among city-dwelling bohemians, resulting in a collective return to nature for inspiration. What transpired artistically was a movement that heralded organic themes and form, but never fully divorced itself from the modernist mechanics celebrated by industrialization, either. The dichotomy manifested itself in the repetition of bold forms such as circles, parabolas, and the era-defining whiplash curve. The latter was incorporated into an array of mesmerizing motifs such as sailing scrolls and sinuous vines.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see how Art Nouveau laid the groundwork for the trippy motifs and kaleidoscopic typefaces that came to define the 1960s hippie counterculture. Viewed through a modern lens, Art Nouveau is peripherally psychedelic. Its nymph-dotted Edens (a mainstay of the promotional posters of the era) and abundance of luring, tentacle-like scrolls exude a frank sensuality that precursor the sexual revolution that would take place nearly a century later.
Free-spirited decree aside, a closer examination of Art Nouveau reveals that most designs are guided by a soothing symmetry. This geometric baseline provides a traceable line from Art Nouveau style to Victorian style, and even later, Art Deco. While Art Nouveau might initially seem tricky to design with, identifying this underlying gridwork makes it infinitely easier to mix and match it with pieces from alternative eras.
International Bidders: All duties, customs and taxes responsibility of buyer