The purse came with a note in Margaret Rolfe's hand: "These 2 purses (S.823-2001 and S.824-2001) belonged to Marie Taglioni. She made the one with coloured beads herself. Mother made the one with a star on black crochet. Madame Taglioni wore this on her chatelaine (sic). She put the Threepenny bit to bring luck and never to have a purse with nothing in it. Margaret" S.825 -2001 and S.826-2001 were also worn by Taglioni on her châtelaine. It is part of a unique collection of memorabilia and personal effects which evoke Marie Taglioni in the last decades of her life. A collection of Taglioni memorabilia was amassed by Margaret Rolfe, the granddaughter of Taglioni's closest friend in London, Mrs Boggs Rolfe; she attended Taglioni's dancing classes and received many gifts of Taglioni memorabilia, from Taglioni herself, from her grandmother and, after Taglioni's death, from her niece, Marguerite Troubetzkoi. She kept these, with a series of related notes, in various boxes and annotated envelopes (filed separately). These she passed to Cyril Beaumont, probably for the London Archives of the Dance (a number of the objects were referred to in "The London Archives of the Dance and some of its Treasures" by Cyril Beaumont, Ballet Annual, first issue, Adam & Charles Black, London, 1947, p110); the Archives never achieved an independent home and part of the collection, including the Taglioni memorabilia, was stored with Cyril Beaumont, where it became inextricably mixed with his own collection and came to the Museum as part of the Cyril Beaumont Bequest.