Heritage Auctions in Dallas recently began offering a special presentation of some of designer Judith Leiber’s most iconic luxury handbags. The collection includes several bags that Leiber designed for First Ladies.
The Art of Judith Leiber Luxury Collection™ will include over 500 special pieces. The first group of 300 handbags will include a unique White Satin & Silver Crystal Evening Bag that Leiber made for Nancy Reagan to carry at her husband’s 1985 presidential inauguration. The collection will also feature a Crystal Socks Sleeping Tuxedo Cat Minaudiere Evening Bag worn by former First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Leiber is well known for her unique use of color, form, and texture that transformed the minaudiere into a wearable piece of contemporary art. Her handbags are included in permanent collections at many prestigious institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. The auction in Dallas is the first time many of the handbags have been offered to the public.
Leiber’s minaudieres are sculpted in a wax mold, cast in brass hardware, and then hand-painted and decorated with Austrian crystals. She secured her reputation as an international fashion icon with her Full Bead Silver & Green Crystal Rose Minaudiere Evening Bag, which has a gold tone base and is covered in silver crystals.
Leiber’s collection also includes several more handbags, such as a White & Pink Iridescent Sundial Seashell Minaudiere Evening Bag accented with gold tone hardware and a Full Bead Pink & Black Crystal Jazzy Bow Minaudiere Evening Bag.
Her Multicolored Crystal Foo Dog Minaudiere is a classic example of her use of animal forms. It is decorated with purple, gold, orange, green, and red crystals and has eyes made from black onyx stones. The collection also includes a Black & Silver Crystal Piebald Pig Minaudiere Evening Bag, a Full Bead Silver & Black Crystal Panda Bear Minaudiere, and a Full Bead Black & Red Crystal Penguin Minaudiere Evening Bag.
A Full Bead Pink & Silver Crystal and Fringe Train Case Minaudiere Evening Bag has unusual pink fringe at the base around a gold leather bottom. It opens in two places to reveal two gold leather lined compartments that are sealed with rose quartz and glass pearl pushlock closures.
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