A GROUP OF LATE VICTORIAN LEATHER GLADSTONE BAGS

Hinged luggage was developed during the second half of the nineteenth Century. Made of stiff leather, the Gladstone bag was a small portmanteau built over a rigid frame, which for as long as has been known has been named after William Ewart Gladstone. The exact reason for this is not clear, but assumed to be to do with the amount of travelling he did. Interestingly it is not actually a British invention, but in fact based on earlier French models.