Sweet Bag Research

Whenever I begin a new project, the first thing I like to do is read and see as much as possible about the project. I use my grad student access and librarian skills to find as many images of extant items online as I can, and I try to find as many books and academic articles as possible.

My recent interest in sweet bags has led me to examine the images in ARTstor. Of particular interest were two sweet bags housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The WONDERFUL thing about these images is that they are, indeed, the FRONT and BACK of each sweet bag. A double check of the accession numbers and a careful examination of high resolution photos indicates that the same accession number is used on two different images, indicating a back and a front. (And before one suggests it's just two photos of one side, there are subtle differences between the sides to indicate the difference).

The items are 1944.283 and 1946.416 . On 1944.283 the difference is easier to see: one side goes "flower, bird, flower" and the other was create "bird, flower, bird". 1946.416 is very similar on both sides, but the color of the pansy in the center bottom changes from image to image- including the very center of the flower, being yellow in one image and rose on the other.

At least on these two items, both sides were embroidered to be similar, although 2 is hardly a representative sample number.

So now I know when planning that it is plausible to create to similar, and yet different sides to my bag, and also that there is evidence of embroidery on both sides of bags.