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Lace Towel End
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This lace was used to embellish a towel end. Textiles of this type are valuable for their lace work depicting ancient folk motifs, ritual significance, exemplification of the role of textiles in Russian society, and connection to a prominent woman collector, Natalia de Shabelsky, without whom this textile and others like it might have been lost.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineLace Towel End, c. 1700s–1800s. Russia, Nizhny-Novgorod province. Cotton or linen (est.); straight (continuous) bobbin lace (Vologda tape lace). The tape forms figural or plant motifs outlined with gimp (heavy cord) with a polychrome plaited ground linking the tape; applied silk (est.) ribbon; overall: 26 x 37 cm (10 1/4 x 14 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1931.107
