BRACCIALINI

Braccialini was founded in Florence in 1954 by Carla and Roberto Braccialini, she drawing and he making, in a workshop of a handful of people. The early bags combined straw with leather trim, floral appliqué and embroidery; the house then became known for something more unusual still — bags built in the shape of cars, fish, birds and buildings, made as objects rather than as containers. Carla ran it alone after her husband's death in 1976. That output is what the resale market comes here for, and it does not sort into lines; our catalogue has none matched. Condition is judged as it would be on a decorated object: look for appliqué that has lifted, missing beads or stones, and whether the structure still holds its shape, since these were built around forms that distort once crushed.