Many workshops in early eighteenth century France produced small purses. The finest French work was in beadwork. Beads were often used in conjunction with other techniques, to highlight parts of a knitted pattern or to form a solid base for soft purses. Very fine, multicoloured bead knitting was popular for purses, in which there was a single bead for every stitch, producing a dense beaded surface. This purse depicts a figure of a woman in a garden, leaning on a plinth with a rolled parasol in her right hand and a small dog at her feet