Shopping from Etsy - Abercrombie & Fitch

Thanks to Jesse Thorn for forwarding along these listings for an Abercrombie & Fitch Game Bag and Travel Kit on Etsy. Although the vintage of these two bags is unknown they were most certainly manufactured by the original, New York based A & F Company.   If you feel the urge to order your own best quality travel bag, here's a link to our reprint of the 1939 A & F catalog.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Travel Bag

Archival Game Bags

The UK makes some of the best game bags in the world. I don’t hunt but I love this style of bag for urban portage. Like the original bike messenger bag, the game bag has a dedicated use function which keeps its design simple and free of useless complications. Most game bags only have one large carrying pocket, come in a single color and are made from best quality materials: proofed canvas, bridle leather, brass fittings and heavy duty cotton web. You won’t find organizer pockets, security zipper closures, carrying handles or plastic hardware on a classic game bag. My favorite feature, of course, that is the hand knotted game net. Originally designed for carrying bloody fowl, the net game pocket doubles as easy access point for frequently accessed (or damp) items. If Archival could locate a US source for hand knotted cotton net, we might consider integrating this feature into a future bag design. Here a few examples of UK game bags with net pockets:

Quality Gunslip

Unidentified vintage bag

Holland & Holland "luxe" game bag

Chapman Solway 16

Brady Sandringham

Vintage Brady Meadow

Rebadged Barbour bags

King of kings - discontinued Brady Scot (20" width)

Game net protects bacon cargo from thieving Weimaraner

Shopping from Japan/UK: Quality Gunslips

Quality Gunslips is a UK bag brand that I know best via Japanese web shops. Per company literature, all Quality Gunslips bags are "hand-made using the highest quality British materials at our workshop in the small rural hamlet of Sarnau, Mid Wales." Their main line of fishing and game bags are made from our favorite materials: double texture proofed cotton canvas, leather strapping, solid brass hardware and the mil spec webbings England produces without effort. The bags clearly share a familial link with other UK bag brands like Brady, Hardy, Billingham and Chapman.

Here are a few views of the Quality Gunslips Japan-only bags and their UK equivalents.

Flap tote bag (Japan)

Flap tote bag (UK)

New tote fishing canvas shoulder bag (Japan)

Marquis economy range (UK)

S Net Messenger Bag (Japan)

Game bags w/rot proof netting (UK)

Field Report: Rucksack Behind the Blind

AC friend Will recently took his Archival Clothing Rucksack duck hunting in the Willamette Valley. We're thrilled to see our products in the field - please forward any pictures of bags in use, the harder the better.


Until we're producing our own Horween game carriers (for slinging dead fowl), please shop from the Brady UK catalog c.1976.

Shopping from the UK: Chapman Bags

It's great to see all these new Chapman special collaborations and Japan special make ups. I've always viewed Chapman as something of a Carhartt to Brady's Filson. Chapman makes terrific, UK-made field bags out of what the testers at the Montgomery Ward Bureau of Standards might designate as good or "economy" quality materials. For example, the rubber lining on my older Solway game bag is starting to crack and the leather is in need of repair. Brady, on the hand, uses top quality bridle leather, solid brass hardware and mil spec webbing--components that result in a premium price. The Brady line is small and focused on a few signature styles (the Ariel, the Trout, the Gelderburn, etc). Chapman, on the other hand, offers limitless variations on classic British and Fishing styles including bags made from linen and tweed along with standard cotton canvas drill. If you cannot afford Michael Palin's $295 Brady Geldenburn , shop from the vintage Chapman catalogs below for terrific, economical alternatives.

Price Guide

Shopping from 1911: Sacs et Vetements

A few pages from Pillpat (Agence Eureka), our favorite print ephemera source for climbing packs, cycling capes and aviator costumes.

Plisson (1911)

Images courtesy of Pillpat (Agence Eureka)