Two Rare Striped Linen Laundry Sacks; Her Majesty’S Prison C.1959-60

Priced individually and dating from the middle of the twentieth century, the very scarcely found buff and navy/black pin-striped linen laundry sacks, each being two feet in size and stamped ‘19/1 HMP23 1959’ and ‘19/1 HMP23 1960’ respectively and with the original rope tie handles. In good un-cleaned condition, the bags are complete with their ties and suffer from no holes or moth. The 1960 example has black pinstripes and the 1959 example is in navy blue.

 The origin of the black-and-white-striped prison uniform goes back to the Auburn prison system that started in New York in the 1820s. In this system prisoners had to be silent, walk in “lockstep,” and they all wore black and white uniforms covered in stripes that symbolised prison bars. The uniforms made prisoners immediately recognisable as criminals, so if a prisoner escaped, the public could easily distinguish them from the non-criminal population. It was in 1953, in the seminal movie ‘The Wild One’ when the main antagonist ‘Chino”, leader of a notorious motorcycle gang, wore a prison striped jersey that they became entombed in subcultural fashions ever since. Eventually, by the later part of the mid-twentieth century, these prison stripes fell out of favour and solid-coloured jumpsuits became the norm.

 Very rarely seen on the open market and still eminently useable whilst being brilliant conversation starters.