The evolution of the chain-mesh bag

Author: May

Jul. 29, 2024

55 0 0

The evolution of the chain-mesh bag

Mesh purses are back in style.

With competitive price and timely delivery, Shengmao sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.

First used in the s, the expensive early bags were made of real woven gold or silver. Chain-mesh bags were in style by the s.

The first bags were made by hand from interlocking metal rings. Companies sent the links to housewives, who assembled the mesh at home.

Early chain bags had handles with a finger-ring attachment so a small purse could be held by a finger while a woman was dancing.

Mesh purses were made of nickel silver by . By , some were made of steel with a gold finish. Sears & Roebuck sold silver-finished white-metal link bags by . The price: a steep $75.

But a machine was invented in that could make mesh purses from many different metals. The purses were plated with nickel, silver, gold or platinum. They were low in price and were fashionable. Enamel-decorated mesh bags were made by the s. The only interruption in the manufacture of mesh purses occurred during World War II, when the metals were needed for the war effort.

The best-known American maker of mesh purses was the Whiting & Davis Co., originally of Plainville, Mass. Whiting & Davis started as a jewelry store in . The Whiting & Davis trademark remains in use today. Mesh purses and accessories such as wallets, lipstick cases, key cases, eyeglass cases and lighters are still being made.

Tell City company made

high-quality furniture

Question: A furniture company in Tell City, Ind., used to make a popular line of Early American maple furniture. I have a dining-room set from this line and wonder if there is still a market for this type of reproduction?

Answer: The Tell City Furniture Co., also called the Tell City Chair Co., manufactured various lines of reproduction furniture starting about . The company is no longer in business. Judging from the number of collectors searching for Tell City furniture or parts, the company made high-quality pieces. You should be able to sell your furniture locally by placing a classified ad.

British company

made ironstone dish

Question: About 30 years ago, I bought an ironstone vegetable dish with a cover at an antiques shop. The dish is decorated in a blue floral pattern and is in mint condition.

The mark on the bottom is a crown with the word "Dartmouth" above it and "Johnson Bros. England" below it. Can you date and price my dish?

Answer: Johnson Bros Ltd. has worked in Staffordshire, England, since . Today it is part of the Wedgwood Group. The mark you describe was used on ironstone and other earthenware dishes made between and . Dartmouth is the name of the pattern, which might be a flow-blue pattern (the blue pattern "flows" onto the white background). Flow-blue covered vegetable bowls sell for $100 to $500.

Mantel lustres date

to Victorian England

Question: My 97-year-old grandmother died a few months ago and left me a pair of pink lustres. These are glass mantel decorations with prisms hanging all around. Mine are made of pink layered glass with a ruffled edge and a white interior. Small floral decorations are painted around the top. Can you give me an idea of its origin and value?

Answer: Lustres date from England's Victorian era. They look like a cross between a fancy candlestick and an oil lamp. Some held candles, but most were purely decorative. Yours was made of cased glass _ layers of glass fused together. The value of antique lustres varies widely, depending on condition and glass quality. Some sell for a few hundred dollars, others for up to $3,000.

Rowing machines popular at turn of century

Question: I have an old, wooden rowing machine made by the Narragansett Machine Co. Can you tell me anything about the company?

Answer: In , the A.E. Tenney Manufacturing Co. was founded in Pawtucket, R.I., to manufacture foot-powered lathes. The company incorporated in as Narragansett Machine Co. It was located in Pawtucket and Providence, R.I. The company's products eventually included light machinery, gymnastics equipment, bowling alleys and lockers. A rowing machine like yours would have been used in sports clubs, homes or schools. Physical fitness and sports were popular at the end of the Victorian era. Narragansett Machine Co. was purchased by Manufacturers Trading Co. of New York in .

Louis Marx made

Ginny Bones doll

Question: Can you tell me anything about my Ginny Bones construction toy? She is a stick-figure doll made of pink plastic bones and joints. When she's assembled, she stands 3 feet. Only her hands, feet and head look real. Her feet are weighted so she can stand, and her joints bend so she can sit. I got her when I was little, and I'm now 41.

Answer: Louis Marx & Co. made Ginny Bones in . The famous toy company made other construction dolls _ Skinny Bones (Ginny's brother), a dog named Ham Bones and a horse with no name. They were marketed as the "Bones Family." A complete Ginny Bones set with box sells for less than $100.

Current prices

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

James Dean commemorative plate, large photo in center, four small photos on rim, eulogy to him on back, Kettlesprings Kilns, , 10 inches, $75.

Disney television car, Donald drives, Mickey is passenger, Goofy in window, Thumper and Bambi on doors, TV screen in roof, Marx, 8 inches, $800.

Daum Nancy cameo vase, gray glass, alternating bands of yellow, cranberry cut with thistle, shades of brown to gilt, c. , 5 inches, $840.

Sheffield silver dish, covered, rectangular, rounded corners, gadrooned rim, detachable rococo handle, c. , 6{ x 9{ inches, $920.

Kathe Kruse doll, VIII Girl, cloth, hazel eyes, rounded mouth, blond, red-print cotton dress, white pinafore, s, 20 inches, $1,000.

North Pole tobacco tin, lithograph of polar bears and walrus, snow-topped mountains, brown on white ground, 9 x 6 inches, $1,100.

Victorian child's push sleigh, upholstered velvet, 46 x 17 x 32 inches, $1,450.

Tiffany bronze-and-glass hand mirror, gold dori finish, Grapevine pattern, amber slag glass, beveled-edge mirror, 7{ inches, $1,800.

Acoma Indian pot, geometric design, white, brown, orange, , 10 x 9 inches, $1,950.

Are you interested in learning more about Vegetable Mesh Bag? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

Donald Deskey bedroom set by Widdicomb, burled maple, black lacquer, refrigerator pulls, c. , 4 pieces, $4,000.

Send questions to Antiques, Ralph and Terry Kovel, c/o the St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box , Beachwood, OH . Questions of general interest will be answered in the column.

String bag

Open netted bag

For the bomber aircraft, see Fairey Swordfish

String shopping bag Oranges packed in net bags

A string bag, net bag, or mesh bag is an open netted bag. Mesh bags are constructed from strands, yarns, or non-woven synthetic material into a net-like structure. String bags are used as reusable shopping bags[1] and as packaging for produce.[2]

History

[

edit

]

A Japanese Edo period wood block print of a kubi bukuro

Bags of net-like material have been used by many cultures in history. For example, Japanese divers have used string bags to collect items to bring to the surface.[3]

Czechoslovakia

[

edit

]

In Czechoslovakia, the production of string bags dates back to s to the town of Žďár nad Sázavou in former Czechoslovakia, present day Czech Republic, when a salesman Vavřín Krčil, representing Jaro J. Rousek company,[citation needed] began to produce string bags under the trademark Saarense (EKV) at the local chateau Žďár. They formerly made hair nets, which had become obsolete due to shorter hairstyles coming into fashion. This led to years of prosperity for the company. The hand made shopping bags were made of artificial silk yarn, woven by women working at home (this was often their second job) or by using child labour,[citation needed] the finished bags were then given to Vavřín Krčil. The bags quickly became very popular due to their low price, light weight, and compactness. Krčil soon extended the range of designs, including bags to be carried at the elbow or on the shoulder, and bags for sporting equipment. In the late s string bags were being produced in Switzerland and Italy, and were distributed around the world. Krčil himself exported the bags to Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and North African countries.[4]

East Germany (German Democratic Republic)

[

edit

]

An East German Einkaufsnetz

The classic East German Einkaufsnetz (shopping net) has leather handles and multicoloured netting made from Eisengarn, a strong, starched and waxed cotton thread.[5]

Due to shortages of many types of raw materials in the GDR, recycling and reusing were the norm; plastic one-use shopping bags were rarely available in shops.[6]

The bags took up very little space when not in use and therefore could be carried around in case one serendipitously came across something useful for sale.[5][7]

In West Germany use of net shopping bags declined from the early s due to single-use plastic bags becoming common in shops and supermarkets, but they continued to be used in the GDR.[8]

In the s and s net bags were also made out of Dederon, the East German trade name for Nylon 6. The oil crisis of the mid-s meant that GDR could no longer produce Dederon in such large quantities and Eisengarn was then more often used for the manufacture of net bags.[7][8]

Environmental concerns,[9] Ostalgie (nostalgia for East Germany), and a general fashion for retro products from the mid-20th Century have led to the resurgence, in all parts of Germany, of what was once considered the frumpy Omas Einkaufsnetz (Grandma's shopping net).[8][10] The DDR Museum in Berlin has a collection of Einkaufsnetze, and the bags are now often sold as DDR kult Klassiker.[7][10]

Russia

[

edit

]

String bag (avoska) with shopping items

String bags were popular in Russia and throughout the USSR, where they were called avoska (Russian: &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;), which may be translated as "perhaps-bag".[11] The avoska was a major cultural phenomenon of Soviet daily life. Avoskas were manufactured using various kinds of strings.[citation needed] With the advent of synthetic materials, some of them were made of stretchable string, so that a very small net could be stretched to a very large sack. With the popularization of plastic bags (which had the same important trait of convenient foldability) avoskas gradually went into disuse, but recent political trends in support of banning plastic bags may bring it back.[12]

Etymology

[

edit

]

The name "avoska" derives from the Russian adverb avos' (Russian: &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;), an expression of vague expectation of luck, translated in various contexts as "just in case", "hopefully", etc. The term originated in the s in the context of shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet Union, when citizens could obtain many basic purchases only by a stroke of luck; people used to carry an avoska in their pocket all the time in case opportunistic circumstances arose.[11] The exact origin of the term remains uncertain, with several different attributions.[13] In a popular Soviet comedian, Arkady Raikin, explained that around he introduced a character, a simple man with a netted sack in his hands. He used to demonstrate the sack to the spectators and to say "&#; &#;&#;&#; &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;. &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;-&#;&#; &#; &#;&#;&#;-&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#; &#; &#;&#;&#; &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;" ("And this is a what-iffie. What if I bring something in it..."). The script is attributed to Vladimir Polyakov.[14]