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While cleaning the basement, I found a bag of discarded pocketbooks. Although the pocketbooks looked OK to me, Mary Alice said they were old and needed to be thrown away. When our daughter's family came home for Christmas, one granddaughter was carrying a large leather handbag, and I asked if it was a Christmas gift.
She told me that the pocketbook was old. I often wondered why women need to carry these big pocketbooks but I'm told they are full of necessities. This made me wonder what the difference is between a purse, handbag or pocketbook.
While a purse and handbag are very similar, a handbag is roomier than a purse. A handbag has enough space for everything one could need during the day, such as makeup, phone, wallet and a water bottle. Purses are much smaller and used for only essential items. Originally, in the early 1600s, a small book that was meant to be carried in one's pocket was known as a pocketbook. Then, beginning about 1722 a book-like leather folder used for papers, bills, etc. was called a pocketbook. In Dickens' book "Great Expectations," he referred to pocketbooks being used by men.
Today, a fashion trend does have some men carrying a pocketbook. However, this is nothing new since early frontier and mountain men, who headed west in search of their fortunes, carried pouches. These men were usually dressed in leather from head to foot, with buckskin shirts, leggings, moccasins, and coonskin caps, with plume-like tails.
Carried over their shoulders were pouches, horns and haversacks suspended by several straps. Each man carried a heavy rifle, with a muzzle that reached to a level with his shoulders, usually six feet in height, and at least 4/5ths of the rifle would have consisted of the barrel. A belt of leather worn around the waist held a knife, with a strong blade and a buckhorn handle, and perhaps a tomahawk.
These shoulder pouches were simply made and contained the mountainmen's most valuable possessions. The earliest pouches were made of buckskin, with fringed trimmings. In later years, calf skin was favored. A pouch would be equipped with a charger, balls, shot, wadding, powder horn, crude knife, turkey call, bone whistle, lead balls, chunks of tow (flax, hemp or jute) for cleaning the bore, patches of homespun linen and pieces of buckskin for clothing repairs, awls, flints, steel, powder, funnels and countless other items, such as lead and bullet molds.
This bag was always kept within easy reach. If it was necessary to leave an area fast, the purse would have been the first item grabbed, even before the rifle for without the purse, the rifle would have been useless.
These hunting bags have become quite valuable. Several years ago, at our local Heritage Days, Charlie Fox and I — with the aid of reference books — gave estimates on the value of guns that people brought in to show us. One man had a musket rifle and a hunting pouch, and after being told what we believed the value to be, he asked if either of us wanted to buy the pair.
Now, I was really interested, and after talking to Mary Alice, I bought the pair.
Some of these hunting pouches date back to Europe and have been found in North America since its earliest settlements. Many years ago I purchased a bag that was very similar to one found at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1762, which was very rare and is now displayed at the Smithsonian. The bag I purchased is made of leather that still has hair, which I believe to be elk hair, on the flap. I have since donated the bag to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Museum at Middlecreek.
In time, the repeating rifle and the famous Colt six gun came into use, and the pouch was no longer needed. Extra rounds of ammunition were carried in small loops on a belt.
Many of today's hunters carry purses, however they are called fanny packs that contain survival items such as matches, compasses, whistles, mirrors and most importantly, candy bars.
The game commission has a flintlock season that comes in after Christmas, in which the hunter is only allowed to use a primitive firearm (or a reproduction firearm). During this season, the hunters carry pouches containing all the implements that the early hunters had to carry. This pouch is now known as a possible bag because everything the hunter could possibly need is carried in the bag.
Today, craftsmen are not only building these early flintlock rifles, but they are also reproducing the leather pouches. These artists generally opt for older leather tanning methods, using either fish oils, alums, salts or tannic acid, to be historically correct when making the pouches. These craftsmen know that leather will not hold its shape when using today's chromed tanning methods. Depending on the maker, these historically correct reproduction bags can fetch up to $750 depending on the maker.
Without a doubt, my hunting pouch resembles the shoulder bags worn by women today (well, maybe not the fancy one our granddaughter has). I peeked into my wife's purse and found it jammed full of items that she thinks might be needed someday. Among these items were a tape measure, level, magnifying glass, sewing kit, flashlight, whistle, etc.
I really laughed when I noticed two toothbrushes.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.