h2>Sweetmeat purse, French, c1670–80
Silk and metal brocade, braid and ribbon
Large decorative tassels were highly fashionable in seventeenth-century Europe. So prevalent did they become that by 1629 a botanist described one plant in such terms: ‘The whole stalke with the flower upon it doth somewhat resemble a long Purse tassel.’
Accession Number: SHM.2011.T.4
