The purse carried on-screen by Estelle Getty as “Sophia Petrillo” throughout the series The Golden Girls (NBC, 1985-1992), likely the show's most famous prop. Getty acquired the purse from a thrift shop in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles before her audition. She carried it when she walks through Dorothy's front door in her famous first scene, and throughout the program's blockbuster seven-season run. She also carried the purse on the spin-off The Golden Palace (NBC, 1992-1993). In Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind the Lanai (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), author Jim Colucci quotes Getty's manager Juliet Green to recount how the purse became “Sophia's.” He writes:“As she continued building the character of Sophia Petrillo, Estelle decided she needed some props. ‘The quintessential bargain shopper,’ as Juliet admiringly calls her, Estelle scoured the thrift stores of LA's Fairfax District, searching for Sophia-like items: a size 12 polyester dress, a straw hat with veil, gloves, and above all, a purse. ‘She was very insistent about finding the right purse,' Juliet remembers. And indeed, the one Estelle ended up picking out is the famous straw, top-clasping bag that her character toted around for all of the show's seven seasons" (p. 12).Colucci's book states that the wardrobe department "ended up having a double made, in case of emergency.” Getty's personal assistant Richard Weaver does not recall a double and says that Getty only used the original. Regardless, he points out that this purse is identifiable as the original by the missing beads on the back handle, original 1960s-early 1970s hardware, uneven weaving across the front (which appears to be done by hand), and a small visible repair to the back-right clasp.After completing thespin-off series, The Golden Palace (NBC, 1992), Getty took this purse and kept it in her home until her death. She stored a pair of Sophia's glasses and the character's wig inside. The purse, as well as the glasses, were sold at auction at Bonhams with other items from her estate on June 14, 2009. The purse is consigned by the original buyer.The purse is sufficiently representative of the series that when Disney released a limited-edition DVD box set of the complete series to celebrate its 25th anniversary, the “box” was a reproduction of Sophia's purse.On a 1996 episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Getty discussed the purse. She told O'Donnell:“Everybody keeps asking [why Sophia always carried] the purse. When people get old and they're displaced from their homes, and they have to go live someplace else, what they keep in their purse is the most important things in their lives, and putting down the purse is like putting down your life. After a while everybody got used to the purse. Now I have it. And whoever wants it is gonna have to pay heavy money for it.”Accompanied by a redacted copy of the consignor's digital receipt from Bonhams and photographs of Getty carrying the purse. Watch Sophia carrying this purse in the first scene in the pilot of The Golden Girls:

7.25 x 10 x 4.75 in; 18.42 x 25.4 x 12.07 cm

Provenance: Lot 6164, “Entertainment Memorabilia including The Estelle Getty Estate Auction,” Bonhams, June 14, 2009.

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