Mid century vintage bag
I have a vintage mid century bag that I am pretty sure to be from real elephant hide. It is quite heavy and thick and feels luxurious. Inside it has 4 compartments plus two slip pockets and one zipped pocket. Lining is made of real suede and feel extremely soft. It has a unique and intricate clasp - to open you have to push from both sides of the round part and to close you just push the clasp back in and the sides somehow know to snap out to hold it (might be magnet). The clasp also has the word PATENT with a small acorn symbol on it. Underneath there are four golden studs the bag sits on. The condition is very good, only some tarnishing of the hardware in the inside frame edges and inside snap opening. Outside there and small scrapes on the outside skin. Inside the lining is perfect. It does feel to be more than just a normal vintage bag, which I have quite many, so I needed to confirm this.
Length 28cm, Height: 18 cm with handle 28 cm , Width: 9 cm narrows to 2 cm, Bag opening: 14 cm, Weight: 726g
Flea Market
Yes
Hi Kadri,
Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry.
This certainly could be an elephant-hide bag. In case you're thinking of selling this, I should let you know that you might have trouble selling it because it might be difficult to prove this was not made before there was legislation protecting certain elephant species from poaching.
That said, elephant hide is not as desirable to most collectors as other materials, such as crocodile, ostrich, python or shagreen. Given that this doesn't have a label - and the gold-tone clasp *may* have come from a third-party source - the appeal of this may be additionally limited, but it has a wonderful look, the quality overall seems exceptional and it appears to be in good condition. It would most likely sell for between $400 and $600* at auction; retail or asking price may vary.
Please let us know if you have additional items to appraise, or questions/concerns, and thank you again for using Mearto.
~ Delia
Mearto has recently partnered with Catawiki, an online platform that conducts auctions around the world; because of our partnership, linked appraisals by a Mearto appraisal will skip the usual vetting process. For more information on that, see the Catawiki link on our page ( https://www.mearto.com/catawiki). If that's something you'd like to consider, let me know and I'll send you the link.
Thank you. Catawiki is known to me. I was wondering if you found any information about the lock mechanism? Does the acorn symbol mean anything? Is is well known lock maker?
Hi Kadri,
I was not able to find anything out about that lock mechanism. There were a lot of people who used the acorn symbol.
Delia
I understood you also provide information where to sell it?