Judith Leiber Heart Crystal Minaudiere

A cover-up that became a craft

Judith Leiber's crystal bags began as a repair. The plating on her first metal bag, the Chatelaine, was so badly flawed that she needed a disguise, and she covered it in crystals. The result looked so striking that she built a business on it. Her museum's curator puts it plainly: the beading began 'not as much of an artistic endeavor but as a matter of necessity.'

The form she was decorating was older. The minaudiere, a small rigid case for an evening's essentials, was invented by the Paris jeweler Van Cleef and Arpels in 1934, when Charles Arpels saw Florence Gould dropping her makeup into a tin box. The name comes from the French verb minauder, to simper or flirt. Leiber turned the jeweler's case into sculpture, shaping it into animals, food, objects and, again and again, hearts.

A heart is among the simplest shapes she made, which is why it shows the craft so clearly. With no ears, feathers or leaves to distract, the whole surface is an unbroken field of crystals, and the quality of the setting is the design.

From Budapest to Fifth Avenue

Judit Peto was born in Budapest on January 11, 1921. In 1938 she went to King's College London to study chemistry, but the war brought her home, where she trained in handbag making and became the first woman to join the Hungarian Handbag Guild. Her family survived Nazi persecution in part through a Swiss protective pass her father obtained; that document is now at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

During the war she met Gerson Leiber, an American soldier and artist. They married in 1946 and moved to New York in 1947, where she worked for established makers. In 1963, at 42, she founded her own company in Manhattan. Unlike the American industry, which built bags on assembly lines with skills divided among workers, Leiber could make a handbag from start to finish, and she brought that European training to New York.

Recognition followed: the Coty Award in 1973, a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1994, and a retrospective at the Fashion Institute of Technology that year. First Ladies including Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton received her bags. She retired in 1998, designed her last bag, a peacock, in 2004, opened the Leiber Collection museum in Springs, New York, in 2005, and died on April 28, 2018, hours after her husband.

How to recognize a vintage heart

The heart that sold in March 2024 shows what collectors look for. It measured 5.25 by 4 by 2.5 inches, was signed Judith Leiber, and came with its hair comb, coin purse, and mirror with pouch, plus the original box and pouch. Those accessories matter: the director of the Leiber Collection says that when Judith sold her handbags, she always included a comb, a mirror and a change purse.

The same curator says Leiber always used Swarovski crystals for their sparkle, that the inside of a Leiber bag should be perfect, with fine materials, impeccable stitching and Judith's signature, and that a vintage or classic Leiber has a distinctive sound when it opens or closes, likened to the door of a very fine automobile. Collector guides describe the crystals as hand-set one at a time.

Today's company still makes hearts, but they differ from the vintage piece. The current Heart Clutch, style M196301, measures 4 by 4.25 by 2 inches, has a metallic leather lining, a push-down closure, a removable 50-inch chain and a Collector's Edition nameplate, and is made in Italy in gold, silver and blue versions. Its retail price on the company site is $3,195.

What a heart brings

In March 2024 a crystal heart minaudiere with comb, coin purse and mirror sold at auction in the United States for $1,260, more than double its high estimate of $600. In the same sale, Leiber's crystal ladybug brought $2,772 and a grouse brought $1,935, each against $800 to $1,200 estimates, so the figurative animal shapes ran ahead of the heart.

That gap is typical. Collectors prize the rarest pieces, such as the minaudieres made with the artist Faith Ringgold, a design based on Gerson Leiber's painting The Much Admired, and the New York Skyline. Vintage minaudieres can be found for far less than current-season pieces, which makes a classic heart one of the more approachable ways to own Leiber's craft.

From the red carpet to the museum

Leiber's bags are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Met's Costume Institute holds a 1982 minaudiere of metal and glass that Leiber herself gave in 1987. In 2017 the Museum of Arts and Design in New York surveyed her career from the founding of the company to 2004 in Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story.

She liked to say that everything should have whimsy in it. The heart is the plainest statement of that idea: a small, glittering object that has no practical reason to be heart-shaped, built with the rigor of a guild-trained craftswoman.

The numbers

Dimensions (vintage, 2024 sale)

5.25 x 4 x 2.5 in

Dimensions (current Heart Clutch)

4 x 4.25 x 2 in, style M196301

Material

Metal frame covered in hand-set crystals; current model lined in metallic leather

Accessories

Comb, mirror and coin purse on vintage examples

Strap (current)

Removable 50-in chain, 25-in drop

Production quantity

Not published

Timeline

1. Jan 11, 1921

   Judit Peto is born in Budapest.

2. 1938

   She goes to London to study chemistry, then returns to Hungary and trains in handbag making.

3. 1946

   She marries Gerson Leiber.

4. 1947

   The Leibers move to New York.

5. 1963

   Judith Leiber founds her company in Manhattan.

6. 1973

   Leiber receives the Coty Award.

7. 1987

   Leiber gives a 1982 minaudiere to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

8. 1994

   Lifetime achievement award from the CFDA and a retrospective at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

9. 1998

   Leiber retires.

10. 2004

    She designs her last bag, a peacock minaudiere.

11. 2005

    The Leiber Collection museum opens in Springs, New York.

12. Apr 4, 2017

    Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story opens at the Museum of Arts and Design.

13. Apr 28, 2018

    Judith Leiber dies, hours after her husband.

14. Mar 20, 2024

    A crystal heart minaudiere with comb sells for $1,260 at auction in the United States.

The world in 1892

• 1892

  Daniel Swarovski and Armand Kosmann patent an electric machine for cutting crystal glass.

• 1895

  Swarovski is founded in Wattens, Austria.

• 1934

  Van Cleef and Arpels invents the minaudiere.

• Jan 1953

  Mamie Eisenhower carries a bag Leiber designed, credited to her employer, to the inaugural ball.

• 1992

  Leiber releases a minaudiere inspired by Gerson Leiber's 1991 painting The Much Admired.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Judith Leiber Heart Crystal Minaudiere is number 92 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (89 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Leiber's crystal bags started as a way to hide flawed plating on her first metal bag.
• She was the first woman to join the Hungarian Handbag Guild.
• The minaudiere was invented after a jeweler saw a socialite keep her makeup in a tin box.
• A classic Leiber is said to close with a sound like the door of a fine car.
• Her last design, made in 2004, was a peacock.
• Leiber died just hours after her husband Gerson in 2018.