200-year-old condom goes on display at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum said in a statement that the playful prophylactic, believed to be made around 1830 from a sheep's appendix, 'depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health'.
It is part of an exhibition called Safe Sex? about 19th century sex work that opened on Tuesday.
The condom, possibly a souvenir from a brothel, is decorated with an erotic image of a nun and three clergymen.
The phrase 'This is my choice' is written along the sheath in French.
According to the museum, this is a reference to the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting The Judgment of Paris, which depicts the Trojan prince Paris judging a beauty contest between three goddesses.
The condom is on display until the end of November.
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Once the cherished accessory of the late Jane Birkin, The Original Birkin bag is set to be auctioned in Paris next month near the home of the late fashion muse. The legendary bag, designed by Hermes CEO Jean-Louis Dumas and made famous by British-French actress, Jane Birkin, who died in 2026 at the age of 76, has become arguably the world's most coveted and iconic fashion accessory since it was made in 1984. Despite fashionistas around the world lusting over the chic accessory, Jane herself only ever owned one Birkin bag, which she used as an 'old faithful' garment until she sold it to charity. Now worth tens of thousands of pounds, the first iteration of the Birkin Bag was scribbled down on the back of a travel sickness bag after a chance meeting between Dumas and Jane Birkin on a flight. Forty years later, auction house Sotheby's has announced the original black leather bag will lead its Fashion Icons sale on 10 July. The first ever of its kind, the historic accessory will be on public display at Sotheby's New York galleries from 6 - 12 June, before being moved to the Parisian auction in the city which was once Jane's home. Distinguished by seven unique design elements, the veneered bag, the first in a long ancestry of highly sought after Birkin accessories, was only exhibited publicly for the first time last autumn at Sotheby's Paris Galleries. Later displayed at at Sotheby's Maison in Hong Kong earlier this year, the purse drew in thousands of spectators from across the world, making it an accessory with legendary status. Aesthetically speaking, the satchel is fairly unremarkable in comparison to today's Birkin lines - with a large assortment of colours, patterns and styles now available to those willing to bear its six year waiting list - with a plain black leather design. Jane's initials are embossed onto the leather design, and the bag itself is covered in residue from stickers representing Unicef and Médecins du Monde. Unlike more modern versions, it also has a shoulder strap. Overall the bag is in a somewhat tattered state suggesting it was well-worn and 'loved' by its late owner. It's different to the first Birkin bags created by Hermès, which were 40cm, and then 35 cms in size, the Original Birkin a hybrid of those two sizes with width and height of a Birkin 35 with the depth of a Birkin 40. Other differences include the metal rings, which are closed on the Original and the hardware, which was first made of gilded brass before later being replaced by gold-plated hardware. The zips are also unique. When it was first created, Hermès still purchased its zips from the 'éclair' company, but this changed in the 1990s when the brand began a partnership with the Riri company, which to this day still manufactures all the zips for the Birkin bags. The bag's feet, or bottom studs, are smaller on the Original Birkin than those eventually used on modern models. Designed specially for Jane, who was never one to sport long painted nails, the Original also has a nail clipper hanging from a chain on the inside of the bag. Distinguished by seven unique design elements, the veneered bag, the first in a long ancestry of highly sought after Birkin accessories, was only exhibited publicly for the first time last autumn at Sotheby's Paris Galleries One of five Birkin bags gifted to Jane, she was known to hold the Original particularly close to her heart, always making sure to specify if she was carrying it over the others. The original 'It' bag - copies of which retailed for £1,500 (£4,800 in today's money) - lasted Jane for ten years. When a replacement was required, Jane sold it to an unnamed buyer at auction in 1994 to support the fight against Aids. Six years later it was back on the market, much to the delight of Catherine Benier, a collector of vintage Hermes and Chanel accessories and owner of Les Trois Marches de Catherine B, an exclusive Parisian vintage fashion boutique, who'd narrowly missed out on the bag previously. She previously described the moment she finally got her hands on the bag. Awestruck by what leather item she'd seen so many times wrapped in the arms of Jane , she said: 'I couldn't imagine that this marvellous object didn't belong to me.' At the time of purchase, the fashion enthusiast told MailOnline she felt 'indescribably joy' when the hammer fell. Refusing to disclose how much she'd paid for the honour of ownership - the figure thought to be well into six figures - Catherine said she would never use the handbag, nor would she part with it. She claimed that she had already received repeated requests to purchase it, including eyewatering sums from the likes of Rihanna and others. Despite having insisted she would never re-sell the bag, it would appear Catherine has changed her mind. The bag was first conceived by a chance encounter between Jean-Louis Dumas, the one-time president of Hermes and the Jane Birkin, when the contents of her straw bag spewed out on the plane they were both taking. 'I said, 'The day Hermes makes one with pockets, I will have that.' 'And he said, 'But I am Hermes, and I will put pockets in for you.' Jane sketched the bag she had in mind on a sick bag, handed it to her travelling companion - and the rest is history. Accompanied by her daughter Charlotte, Jane laid out her desires for the perfect bag, her main concern being capacity. She explained that she had previously found bags too small and often found herself carrying a large large wicker basket she had bought in Portugal in the late 1960s. Over the next four decades, the Hermes Birkin would become the most desired fashion accessory in the world, with waiting lists of up to six years for some styles — the 'Himalaya', made from albino Nile crocodile skin, is the most highly prized — with buyers willing to pay more than £300,000 to get their hands on one. As she recalled: 'When everything fell out of whatever bag I had, the man next to me said, 'You should have one with pockets.' Muse to the renowned fashion piece, Jane only ever had one Birkin at a time and would wear the item to the point of near-collapse. 'One is already quite enough,' she told Vogue in 2011. 'Any bag that's with me will take the same course as I will. It will take the same airplanes and will be squashed in the same way and will be used as a cushion in the airports.' The actress and singer kept her essentials — diary, phone, photographs of her three daughters and make-up — in her Birkin, but admitted she'd had to stop carrying 'that rather trivial piece of heavy luggage' in her latter years as it had contributed to her tendonitis. She also confessed to using the bag as an umbrella, sleeping on it at airports — even giving her cat free rein to play inside. Jane only ever owned — and subsequently sold — five Birkins, all in plain black leather and personalised with stickers, worry beads, keys, luggage tags, bracelets and even a miniature harmonica dangling from its handles. 'She was bohemian,' says Hermes expert Michael Tonello, author of Bringing Home The Birkin and founder of smart fashion retailer Respoke. 'She didn't care very much about luxury goods.' Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's Global Head of Handbags and Fashion, said: 'There is no doubt that the Original Birkin bag is a true one-of-a-kind — a singular piece of fashion history that has grown into a pop culture phenomenon that signals luxury in the most refined way possible.'
