Shepherds Purse: manuscript - Stockholm-Kessel Book of Hours "Annunciation"

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Despite the later Swedish associations of the Stockholm-Kessel Book of Hours, it was created in Bruges ca. 1520. The book currently exists in two separate portions, one in the Royal Library at Stockholm (MS A227) and one at the Landesbibliothek, Kassel (MS math. Et art. 50). The illustration belongs to the Annunciation to the Shepherds genre. The purse is extremely unusual in construction (as well as in showing the construction this clearly). Towards the shepherd's front, the pouch is clearly gathered up as if with a drawstring (but no similar conformation is seen at the other end of the pouch section). Along the upper edges of the pouch are a sereies of small round marks -- it's unclear whether they are buttons (suggesting two separate ways of opening the pouch?) or rings for attached tools, but with nothing currently attached. The purse appears to be fastened around the waist rather than slung over the shoulder, but note the shoulder strap on the lefthand shepherd above. (Whatever is attached to it is hidden under his cloak.)

References

Testa, Judith Anne. 1992. The Stockholm-Kassel Book of Hours: A Reintegrated Manuscript from the Shop of Simon Bening. Royal Library, Stockholm. fig. 17