Monday 6 May, 2019
Bags, Clothing photos, Velvet
? 15th April, 2019
Bags, Clothing photos
I've shown two bags
already. This third one is very unusual. I found it
in a charity shop — possibly Age Concern — in Greenwich, in
2007 or so.
The bag is lettered in Russian, "CIGARETTES / ASTRA": "СИГАРЕТЫ / АСТРА". At the bottom in smaller letters is the equivalent of our health warning, but from the USSR Ministry of Health: "МИНЗДРАВ СССР ПРЕДУПРЕЖДАЕТ КУРЕНИЕ ОПАСНО ДЛЯ ВАШЕГО ЗДОРОВЬЯ".
Some Googling taught me that Astras are made by a Moldovan company, Tutun-CTC. Indeed, their products page shows a pack. An image search for Astra turns up bags captioned in several languages, including Moldovan, Lithuanian, and Uzbek.
I don't carry this bag around as much as the other two I've shown, but I do use it regularly. It's just the right size to hold the Derwent Coloursoft pencils that I do most of my coloured drawings with. You can just see two trays sticking out of the top.