Sheridan Stewart Bag

Style number

4231

Era

classic-nycE4

Introduced

1993

Designer

in-house

Confidence

confirmed

Status

published

Sheridan Stewart Bag

Dispute resolved 2026-05-02. Primary catalog evidence settles both prior framings:

• The Sheridan Collection LINE launched Fall 1992 (Fall Special Edition 1992 catalog cover: “New Sheridan Styles pages 2-9”) [coach-catalogs-1960-1989]. FundingUniverse’s “early 1992” was approximately right.
• The Stewart Bag (Style 4231) was NOT in the Fall 1992 launch roster of 12 styles. It first appears in the Fall 1993 An American Legacy catalog at $224 [coach-catalogs-1960-1989]. Coach.com’s “first introduced in 1993” framing for the Stewart variant is correct.
• Both prior sources were right — they were dating different things (collection vs. variant). Original disputed framing is no longer accurate.

Description (primary, Fall 1993 catalog)

Per Fall 1993 catalog page 60:

“F. STEWART BAG No. 4231 $224 Full-length outside back pocket. Leather-lined flap. Inside zipper pocket. 46” Adjustable shoulder strap. 7½” × 8½” × 4½” Green with Tan trim shown. Black, Bone, Navy, Red, Tan, Taupe, all with Tan trim. Also available in solid Black.”

Original framing for context

The Sheridan Stewart Bag is a Coach silhouette in the Sheridan collection, a late-NYC-era line introduced in the early 1990s. Coach.com’s current Vintage Sheridan Stewart Bag re-release page (SKU CDE04) states the model was “first introduced in 1993” [coach-vintage-sheridan-stewart]. The Sheridan collection’s introduction year was previously disputed: 1992 per FundingUniverse [fundinguniverse-coach] versus 1993 per Coach.com [coach-vintage-sheridan-stewart].

The 1992 vs 1993 dispute

The Sheridan introduction date does not resolve to a single year on the free public record. Both readings are documented and both are tagged here so neither is silently dropped.

• 1992 (FundingUniverse): the trade-press corporate history republished by FundingUniverse — sourced from the International Directory of Company Histories — places the launch in early 1992: “Sheridan and Camden collections introduced” alongside the worldwide store count of 53 [fundinguniverse-coach]. Tier 2.
• 1993 (Coach.com): the brand’s current Vintage Sheridan Stewart Bag product page (CDE04) states the bag was “first introduced in 1993” [coach-vintage-sheridan-stewart]. Tier 1, brand-published.

A plausible reconciliation: the Sheridan collection launched in 1992 (FundingUniverse), and the Stewart variant within that collection was introduced in 1993 (Coach.com’s date applies to the specific silhouette, not the collection). Under this reading both sources are consistent and the discrepancy is one of granularity, not fact. The reading remains disputed until either a 1992 catalog page showing the Stewart variant or a 1993 catalog page showing it as a new introduction is matched.

The Tier 1 brand-published date (1993) outranks the Tier 2 trade-press date (1992) on tier alone, but the Tier 2 source covers the collection, not the variant, so this is not a straightforward override. Both citations stand.

Description

Specifics — exact dimensions, the canonical vintage style number, the original closure type, the original color list — are not catalogued in the Phase 0 research notes [research/D-models.md]. Hardware is solid brass, consistent with the late-NYC-era construction standard [research/E-authentication.md]. This entry will be filled in as catalog scans and dated reference photos surface; until then, every dimensional, color, or style-number claim about a vintage Sheridan Stewart should be treated as tentative.

The Sheridan collection

Sheridan was one of two named collections introduced together in early 1992 per FundingUniverse — the Sheridan and Camden collections were launched at the same moment in the corporate timeline, with a worldwide store count of 53 [fundinguniverse-coach]. Both collections sit in the late Classic NYC era (E4), one to two years before the Manhattan collection (Spring 1993, “first major use of bright colors” per FundingUniverse [fundinguniverse-coach]) and roughly two years before the Soho collection (1994 per Coach.com [models/soho.md, coach-vintage-soho]).

This places the Sheridan collection in the brief window between Coach’s expansion-phase NYC identity and the late-1994 flagship-opening pivot that introduced Soho — the last two years where named collections launched under fully NYC-era design language before the Krakoff transition began.

Authentication

What to check on a vintage Sheridan Stewart specifically:

• Creed wording, late E4. A 1992–1993 Sheridan should carry the pre-1994 “COACH LEATHERWARE” creed, with the small-caps LEATHERWARE wordmark beneath “COACH” [research/E-authentication.md]. Presence of LEATHERWARE is the single strongest textual anchor for pre-1994 manufacture; an early Sheridan with a creed reading “COACH” alone (no LEATHERWARE) would be anomalous and is suspect.
• Serial format. Pre-1994 creeds carry a digit-only xxxx-xxx unique serial; the post-1994 letter-digit-letter-dash-digits format begins in 1994 [research/E-authentication.md §2]. A 1992–1993 vintage Sheridan Stewart should carry the digit-only format.
• Made in U.S.A. A 1992–1993 Sheridan should be U.S.-made; Costa Rican production began ~1994 [research/E-authentication.md §3]. A “Made in Costa Rica” Sheridan claiming pre-1994 manufacture is a red flag.
• Solid brass hardware. Non-magnetic. Magnetic hardware on a bag claiming early-1990s manufacture is a strong fake or post-vintage-plated-steel signal [research/E-authentication.md §4].
• Edge treatment. Glove-tanned cowhide with raw or burnished edges. Painted glossy edges on a “1990s” Sheridan are a strong fake or reproduction signal — Coach NYC-era construction does not paint edges [research/E-authentication.md, PLAN §6].
• Designer attribution. A vintage Sheridan Stewart is not a Cashin design. Cashin’s tenure ended in 1974 [research/C-cashin.md]; the Sheridan collection launched 1992 or 1993. Any listing or article attributing the model to Cashin is wrong on its face.

Modern re-release

Coach currently sells a “Vintage Sheridan Stewart Bag” (SKU CDE04) on coach.com [coach-vintage-sheridan-stewart]. This is the source of the brand-published 1993 introduction date that anchors this entry.

A re-released Sheridan Stewart is in current production and is not a vintage Sheridan Stewart. Modern re-releases will carry post-2014 sewn-in country-of-origin tags rather than creed serials [research/E-authentication.md §6, E8] and will not match pre-1994 creed wording. Treat CDE04 as its own catalog entry — useful as a brand-published date citation, not as evidence about original 1992–1993 production.

Sources

• coach-vintage-sheridan-stewart (Tier 1, brand-published) — “first introduced in 1993” date and the modern re-release SKU CDE04.
• fundinguniverse-coach (Tier 2) — “Sheridan and Camden collections introduced” early 1992; basis for the 1992 reading and the collection-vs-variant reconciliation.

The introduction date is disputed (1992 vs 1993) and the rollup confidence is likely — the model exists and is brand-acknowledged, but the year remains ambiguous on the free public record. Style number, dimensions, closure type, color list, and variant catalogue are tentative until catalog imagery and dated example photos are added to the archive.