If you think your $300 designer tote is impressive, wait until you see what women were carrying back in the day. We’re talking about purses that were actual works of art—hand-beaded masterpieces, crystal-covered minaudieres that belonged in museums, and innovative Lucite boxes that looked like they came from the future.
While you’re out here, excited about a bag with “genuine leather” and a logo you bought for a few hundred dollars, these 23+ vintage purses and handbags had much more to them! And mind you, they aren’t just peak fashion; they could cost more than most people’s cars today.
1. Hermes Box Sellier Kelly Handbag
This is the iconic Hermès Kelly purse – the real “status bag!” But what’s so special? Vintage Kelly purses were handmade, with each bag taking an Hermès artisan around 18 to 20 hours to complete from start to finish, with 680 stitches securing 36 separate pieces of leather—all manually!
Besides, the Sellier typically used hard leathers, such as the classic Box leather, giving it a distinct structure and rigidity to maintain its iconic trapezoidal shape. If you find an authentic vintage Kelly bag in a flea market, DON’T miss it!
2. Hard-bodied Leather Purse with Rolled Handle
This late 19th-century purse is what marks the evolution toward modern handbag design. It’s a hard-bodied leather frame bag with rolled handles, featuring metal frames, clasps, and decorative hardware! These bags simply look like smaller versions of luxury luggage pieces!
These bags generally have a kiss-lock or snap closure made of steel or brass, decorative metal studs, and embossed patterns on the frame. The leather body, often lined with silk, also features intricate embossed (raised) design, something modern purses can’t replicate.
3. Vintage Chanel Quilted Flap Bag
This bag is what makes vintage Chanel a crush for today’s designers and collectors! The Chanel 2.55 is reportedly the world’s first ever shoulder bag! This iconic bag came with diamond quilted leather stamped with Chanel’s initials, a double-flap style, and a unique gold-plated metal all-chain strap!
Classic vintage Chanel flaps were commonly created with 24k gold-plated brass hardware, which gives them a unique and warm tone, whereas newer bags tend to use stainless steel with ruthenium-plated gold!
Nonetheless, this particular bag is what shaped the present of shoulder bags, making it a historical accessory!
4. Victorian Micro Beaded Reticule Purse with Drawstring
Reticules were small drawstring bags used by Victorian women to hold necessary objects such as calling cards, money, and toiletries! In fact, these were likely the first kind of handheld purse designed for women!
These purses typically showcase patterns of roses, birds, buttercups, and daisies made of small beads or embroidered wool, with fancy ones trimmed in ribbon, braiding, tassels, and fringe!
Many women also decorated their purses with glittering beadwork and trimmed them in lace, ribbon, or silk to show off their needlework skills! Now, try finding that level of craftsmanship today!
5. Edwardian Sterling Silver Mesh Purse with Chain Handle
A purse made of Sterling silver? Sounds too extra, right? But this Napier sterling silver mesh purse actually is a true early 20th-century piece that outshines today’s cheap materials. Edwardian period sterling silver mesh purses from around 1900-1910 featured original chain handles and snap locks!
These purses were sterling silver throughout, fully hallmarked in multiple places, with ornately engraved frames and embellished with beaded fringe bottoms. Most of these mesh bags also had Classical inspiration! While lightweight bags are more functional, these bags are a sign of true luxury!
6. Antique Silk Beaded Purse
This silk purse from the 1860s is a masterpiece! It’s an example of Civil War-era fashion, when silk was a luxury material! Reticules of this era were typically made from silk, velvet, or satin in square or tulip shapes, often with metal frames and locks.
These bags were usually flat and outlined in silk cord with metal tassels at the top corners and bottom, like this example! Such handmade beaded purses were a huge thing back in those days. While you may still see a beaded purse, they are rather glued by machine than being hand-beaded!
7. Art Deco Mandalian Beaded Mesh Bags
Beaded flapper purses, like this one, surged in popularity during the 1920s as a part of the Art Deco style! These bags typically feature intricate beadwork showcasing vibrant floral and geometrical patterns, paired with an ornate metal (often brass) frame and chain!
These were used at a time when a woman only needed to carry minimal necessities —makeup, money, and keys. But the stunning designs and craftsmanship made these bags fashion accessories rather than practical handbags!
I’m sure you’d give up on today’s boring clutches for this stunning Art Deco mesh evening bag without a second thought!
8. Vintage Gucci Bamboo Handle Purse
A stylish leather bag with a handle made of bamboo! It may sound odd, but this was one of Gucci’s most popular purses! The Gucci Bamboo bags came to life in 1947, in post-war Italy, when designer Guccio Gucci responded to a leather shortage by using a unique handle made of bamboo for their latest bags!
All of the brand’s bamboo handles are made by expert artisans who hand-manipulate, lacquer, and toast each piece to glossy perfection, and Gucci patented this method. This unique style was born from necessity, making it highly collectible today!
9. Christian Dior Saddle Bag – Y2K Icon
Vintage Dior will always win over today’s “it” bags! Here’s why: the Saddle made its first appearance in 1999 in Dior’s spring/summer 2000 ready-to-wear show, with its shrunken saddle shape and stirrup-like ‘D’ shape!
The bag quickly became the most talked-about accessory, with every it-girl wearing the funky-shaped purse on their arm, and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw even sported one in “Sex and the City!”
No wonder, the bag’s success yielded a 60% rise in sales of Dior’s accessories by the end of 2001!
10. 1820s European Leather Purse
This is a super rare antique purse from the 1820s, but with a design that feels more luxurious than anything you see today! From the hand-stitched construction to the heavy and solid clasps and chains, this piece is a true example of the early solid craftsmanship!
Another special feature of this vintage bag is that it features a photograph of Burg-Thor in 1825. This makes this purse more than just an accessory – a piece of ancient history with a design that is expected to last for years rather than seasons!
11. Lucite Box Purse
This sparkling Gilli lucite box purse is what every accessory collector wants to have! Introduced in the late 1940s, Lucite handbags quickly became the evening bag of choice because the material could be made in many colors, easily shaped and carved, and objects like glitter and rhinestones could be embedded in it!
The lid has a deeply carved floral starburst design on clear Lucite, with confetti and rhinestones! It’s almost like a wearable sculpture that makes modern minimalism look utterly boring. Besides, these bags hold monetary value, too!
12. French Petit Point Embroidered Purse
This dreamy French evening purse can make today’s simple clutches look embarrassingly lazy by comparison. Embroidered handbags gained mass popularity when women began using purses in the late eighteenth century in France after form-fitting dresses caused their dresses to lose their pockets!
The intricate designs were originally meant to show off to possible suitors, with tiny glass or metal beads creating distinguishable floral patterns by hand-sewing! Compared to today’s mass-produced purses, this handmade artistry is what makes these purses so collectible!
13. Judith Leiber Animal-shaped Minaudière Purse
If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to carry pure sparkle, this sleeping cat minaudière is your answer. The Hungarian-born designer Judith Leiber’s lauded vintage minaudières were made in the form of crystal-covered swans, cupcakes, teddy bears, and other delightful objects and animals!
These distinctive purses were regularly seen in the hands of First Ladies and movie stars.
Here’s the backstory of Leiber’s minaudières: the beading of the bags began as a matter of necessity when plating on her first metal bag was flawed, leading her to cover it with crystals!
14. Enid Collins Box Bag
Meet the “Sophistikit”— a little wooden “box” purse that every Texas girl would’ve wanted to own! Collins adorned her purses with exotic subjects like glittering carriages and proud peacocks, as well as familiar Texas themes—ladybugs, roadrunners, and horses!
These purses were also studded with jewels and rhinestones imported from Czechoslovakia. What’s amazing is that each purse had a name and was signed with the initials EC, as if it were an important work of art.
15. Shell-shaped Leather Purse
This gorgeous shell-shaped purse is a perfect example of how ornate Victorian accessories can be! Against the common rectangular or oval bags, this one features an elegant shell or scallop-shaped body – a wide round bottom with a smaller top – with gathered ruching pleats that look like shells!
Also, it does look like retro bakelite or lucite at first glance, but it’s actually leather! And the craftsmanship to give hard leather such interesting shapes is what makes this purse rare and collectible!
16. Vintage Tapestry Carpet Purse/Handbag
The Marlow tapestry carpet bag is a true example of needlepoint artistry. Just like this example, the designs on antique carpet/tapestry/needlepoint bags showed scenes of social life and history, with intricate details, thanks to everything being made by hand!
Through the years, carpet bags have been made from carpet, tapestries, upholstery fabric, velvet, rugs, chenille, needlepoint, and suede, often with leather, celluloid, Bakelite, bamboo, and wood accents! The materials and exceptional craftsmanship on these bags are far superior to today’s mass-produced examples.
17. Telephone Cord Bags
This unique “telephone cord” purse is a 1940s Americana piece that’s surprisingly misunderstood. Despite the name, these bags weren’t made from real telephone cords but from plastic coils laminated onto cotton fabric. They had metal zippers and featured the telephone wire arranged in patterns on both front and back!
Since this type of purse was only manufactured for a few years, today vintage telephone cord purses are highly collectible! They usually command impressive prices for their unique designs, which you’d hardly get to see!
18. Rafael Sanchez Wooden Clutch Purse
Now, where will you find a wooden purse in 2025? Besides, this unique wooden clutch showcases a beautiful hand-painted artwork of traditional or folk art designs with rich colors and fine details, again something modern styles don’t have!
Rafael Sanchez was known for creating such artistic and functional wooden accessories. And these wooden purses were popular as both fashion accessories and collectible art pieces.
19. Art Deco Large-Beaded Satin Purse
This elegant black beaded purse is special for two reasons: it has that distinctive Hollywood glamour vibe, and it was actually owned by Golden Girls star Rue McClanahan! This bag has a dark, intricate beadwork, giving it a slight gothic look.
And the sophisticated frame closure is a key feature of high-end evening bags. This purse holds a vintage vibe that would work just as well at a modern gala as it did in Hollywood’s golden age.
20. Art Deco Butterscotch Catalin Bakelite Purse
You’d hardly see these solid Bakelite purses, but they were big back in the Art Deco era! Like this gorgeous purse, showing the butterscotch bakelite frame with catalin detailing creates that warm, honey-colored glow that’s so characteristic of 1920s-30s accessories.
The metallic brown beaded exterior with a distinctive ball closure mechanism is another feature you’d miss on modern examples. These beaded purses were perfect for the Jazz Age woman who wanted to look fashionable while dancing the night away.
21. Vintage Bonnie Cashin 1960s Coach Purse
Bonnie Cashin is perhaps best known for her work at Coach from 1961 to 1974. The brass turnlock, introduced by Cashin in 1961, is now a hallmark of the brand! This cream-colored leather bag shows Cashin’s signature work – clean lines and functional design.
Cashin’s clever antique-style metal kiss-lock clasps and inset coin-purse pockets were revolutionary. And that’s why these vintage Cashin Coach bags are incredibly sought-after by collectors!
22. Judith Leiber Satin Evening Purse with Gemstone Frame
You hardly see gemstones in modern purses, right? And that’s what makes this exquisite vintage Judith Leiber evening bag made of luxurious black satin with gemstones a true star here! The clasp and the drop on the front are adorned with sparkling and colorful crystals.
Judith Leiber bags are known for their original craftsmanship; each one is handmade by skilled artisans who add those signature rhinestones and crystal beading by hand. The jeweled frame creates an Art Deco-inspired look that’s hard to find today!
23. Helene Angeli Designer Sling Purse
A pure Helene Angeli design that you can spot from a distance! While modern crossbody bags obsess over being “practical” and streamlined, this purse, covered in all colorful stones and detailed quilted patterns, tells that vintage accessories are more conversation starters!
Helene Angeli, located in Nice on the French Côte d’Azur, designed fanciful handbags in the shape of familiar objects and things, each one being unique and eye-catching! From the hard, box-body like a home to colorful stones and a metallic frame, this vintage sling bag has everything that makes it worth $400-$500 today!
