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Towel End
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This Russian embroidered panel was likely used to embellish the end of a bathing towel. Textiles of this type are valuable for their fine embroidery of ancient folk motifs, ritual significance, exemplification of the role of textiles in their society, and in this case, 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 lineTowel End, c 1700s- 1800s. Russia, Nizhny-Novgorod province, 18th-19th century. Plain weave linen (est.) with polychrome wool (est.) and metal thread chain stitch embroidery; applied silk (est.) ribbon and metal thread trim; overall: 38 x 43 cm (14 15/16 x 16 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1931.132
