BY ASPREY, LONDON, EARLY 1980s

This handbag is perhaps the archetypal ‘Thatcher Handbag’. It is typical of the handbags favoured by Britain’s first female Prime Minister at the time when the verb ‘Handbagging’ was coined in the mid-1980s by Julian Critchley, Conservative MP, with reference to Margaret Thatcher’s dominant ministerial style, particularly during cabinet meetings. Mrs. Thatcher was photographed entering number 10 Downing Street, carrying this handbag and wearing the suit in the following lot circa 1981. She was also photographed with what appears to be this bag when visiting President Reagan at Camp David in December 1984.