Blue Monday: Collins Bag

I'm a packrat inveterate collector. At one time or another, I have collected comic books, postage stamps, marbles, ceramic cats, dolls, paper dolls, nutcrackers, Teddy bears, postcards, greeting cards, matchbooks, dishware, glassware, Pyrex ware, sewing patterns, and vintage clothing. To name a few.

And one more. Collins bags. Enid Collins designed and manufactured handbags in Texas, starting in the mid- to late 1960s, until sometime in the 1970s. There were basically two types of bags – wooden box purses, and canvas bucket style bags. As a teenager, I fell in love with the small box bags – they were about the size of a large paperback and encrusted with sequins and fake jewels. They were eminently impractical for day-to-day toting. And they were quite pricey by my working-class standards. Even so, I managed to cajole my mother into buying me at least two that I can remember.

Alas, those original two bags apparently fell victim to one of my mother's frequent clear-outs, because today they are nowhere to be found in all my "stuff." But a few years ago, while browsing eBay, I was bitten by the Collins bug once again and started building a very nice little collection of the boxes. This is a photo of one of them with a bit of blue on it – it's one of the bigger box bags, about 12 inches long – called Pavan II (all Enid's designs were named). As you can see, it's not in mint condition, but it's still one of my favorites. I was always more interested in the wooden box bags than the buckets, but lately I'm starting to look at the fabric bags with a new eye. I suppose they mostly appeal to women of a certain age, and oh yeah, I'm there now.

Thanks to Smiling Sally for hosting Blue Monday. For more blue offerings, or to participate yourself, please visit her blog .