Images(3)

Purse

Object number2021.41.5

Made by Leonilde Frieri Ruberto

Datec. 1976

MediumFabric

Credit LineGift of Laura E. Ruberto

DescriptionBlack crochet hand bag or purse. Oblong-shaped, round-bottomed cinch pouch purse. Open at top with two string pull loops for cinching closed. Body of purse has looser crochet pattern than tightly crocheted bottom.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth (Flat): 10 x 9.25 x 1.125 in. (25.4 x 23.5 x 2.9 cm)
Historical NotesThis purse was made for Leonilde Frieri Ruberto’s daughter-in-law, Anna, specifically to use when Anna (and her husband, Raffaele) attended Carnegie Hall for Luciano Pavarotti’s December 3, 1976 performance. It was made to match an evening gown that Anna, an expert seamstress herself, had sewn for herself to wear for the event. After the performance, they attended a private party in Pavarotti’s honor at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Katz in Squirrel Hill. Leonilde Frieri Ruberto was born in Cairano, Italy and lived through World War II while her husband was held as a POW in the U.K and the United States. Later in her life, after the earthquake in Irpinia one of her daughters asked her to write down her life story in a spiral notebook. Written in imperfect Italian in one continuous sentence, Ruberto describes her life in Cairano, raising children with a husband abroad (he immigrated to Venezuela after the war to earn money), and migrating to the neighborhood of Bloomfield in Pittsburgh. Ruberto’s granddaughter published her memoir in a bilingual edition called Such Is Life; the cover shows Leonilde doing needlework, as her family often remembers her doing. She was a skilled sewer and needleworker.

Related person Luciano Pavarotti (1935 - 2007)

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