Bag - Aphrodite Style - Antique Green Hand-Tooled Leather Laced Shoulder Bag (Green Man Design)

Elegantly finished tooled leather shoulder bag hand dyed in antique qreen with a tooled impression of a traditional 'Green Man' face.

 

The body of the bag is made from high quality 3mm top grain leather with a 1" plain shoulder strap and an antique brass coloured swing fastening catch .

 

This bag has an adjustable strap fitted with a solid brass roller buckle. It can be worn over the shoulder or across the body.

 

Although very attractive, my bags are extremely hardwearing and will genuinely last a lifetime. They can also cope with a lot of abuse. My mum is still using one I made 40 years ago and my lovely niece, Jenny, is now using one I made for my sister about the same time. They really do last! 

 

Please note: the bag you receive will be very similar to the one in the illustration but all my bags are slightly different. The colour can vary slightly because leather is a natural material. The tooling will also vary slightly because I try hard to make each bag unique.

 

Cultural/Historical Note:

The cycle of birth, growth, death and re-birth is one that was very familiar to our Ancient British ancestors. Plants and trees filled their landscape; providing life-sustaining food and a habitat for the animals they hunted. Life was hard for the ancients, so it is no wonder they worshiped spirits and deities associated with nature and gave thanks to them when the cold, hard winter skies were replaced by warm spring sunshine. The Green Man is linked to ‘Jack in the Green’ and the ‘May King’ in the Spring, as he is seen as a representative of the all-important ‘life force’. He becomes linked to  ‘John Barleycorn’ in the autumn as the harvest is brought home and may be known as ‘Herne the Hunter’ along with a host of other names throughout the long winter months.

The Green Man is usually portrayed as a human face surrounded by dense foliage. His image appears as far back as the eleventh century in church carvings. As Christianity spread, the Green Man went into hiding, with stonemasons leaving secretly carved copies of his face hidden around cathedrals and churches.