Skimming Travel Accessories

I have been reading through the Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework reprinted from the 1882 second edition. (Thank you, Pat.) Along with the helpful explanations and definitions, there are several illustrations of travel accessories. Just about everyone screams “make me.” I need to look each of these up to see when and where they originate from to determine if they will be appropriate for my travel impression. While I do this, I’ll be looking for information who may have made this item, who may have used it, when it was used, how it was used, etc.

(My apologies for those images which refuse to load right-side up.)

This Railway Rug, is the only non-container of the bunch. It is essentially a blanket. I need to look up the phrase to see when it came into use.

This “Travelers Wallet” is a larger case than the word “wallet” would suggest. Laying open it measures 48 inches by 23 inches. The items shown in the illustration make me think this may be for a man. But, I can easily see a parasol and shawl or fan tucked into this case.

This “Traveling Case for Wraps and Bed Linens” seems as thought it would also be rather large. I do not know if this would be inside the trunk or larger travel bag intended for the evening. If the traveler was traveling through the night on a railcar, then she may have it with her in her larger travel bag. If she were staying at an inn, it would more likely be in a trunk.

This case for medicine is quite interesting and very tempting to make. It would make a great discussion piece. It would also be very useful to have on had with Benadryl and pepto or headache meds.

This “Luncheon Case” looks like it would be quite handy. It reminds me of the smaller lunch case from Beeton’s book.

This “Bolster case” has to be shared for its similarity to the “Dufflebag”. I suspect this illustration is later in the century, as with some of these others, but need to look into that.

This simple “Umbrella Case” would be very useful. I keep my parasols and umbrella in a simple cloth tube-shaped bag for storage. This would give a nice safe place to put a damp or wet umbrella to keep it from getting other things wet. (Do remember to take it out to dry.)