Handbags with history

Over the next decade the collection continued to grow and her 4000 bags were moved to their present home in a superbly restored canal house on Amsterdam's stately Herengracht - The Gentlemen's Canal.

I just spent a morning there. Yes, you read that correctly. I spent a morning looking at handbags.

My friends would not call me a fashionista. Female members of my family select my wardrobe and I pull it on compliantly.

Bags are an important part of everyone's life.

I'm not easily excited by accessories. I do, however, like art, design and social history, and this is what the Tassenmuseum is all about.

"Bags are an important part of everyone's life," Mrs Ivo says. "Think of refugees, or people in nursing homes. Everything precious to them is in a bag."

The Ivos' art historian daughter, Sigrid, has assembled the collection to tell a story of European society from the 16th century to the present, with excellent notes.

The goatskin "man-bags" gentlemen used before suits had pockets, the purses in which fashionable ladies kept their gambling chips, the hand-painted wooden boxes children carried to school in the pre-backpack era, souvenir bags from shipping cruises, the elaborate leather luggage that accompanied early rail travellers - examples of all are included in the museum's collection.

Then there are the novelty bags from the days before wearing real fur became really non-U. Frogs, lizards, peacocks, an armadillo and a leopard were ingeniously converted into fashion accessories.

Design movements such as art deco are reflected in handbags, minor masterpieces in their own right. Perhaps some time in the future the Tassenmuseum will display green supermarket shopping bags, Teletubbies backpacks, laptop cases and pull-along cabin luggage. They'll give visitors a nostalgic laugh, but they won't match the beauty and craftsmanship of the past.

Charity auctions have enabled the Ivos to acquire celebrity bags, including the Versace purse Madonna carried to the Evita premiere, the Kelly bag favoured by Princess Grace, and items formerly owned by Elizabeth Taylor and Imelda Marcos.

For those afraid that no bag is big enough to hold their interest, the 17th century house itself is worth visiting for the elaborately decorated "style rooms", neat French-style garden and elegant cafe. Warning: if you're travelling on a budget, you may need to strategically position yourself between your partner and the gift shop when leaving.