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Forehead Cloth
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Sumptuous interlacing scrolls bearing flora and fruit embroidered with gold, silver, and silk thread decorate this set composed of a coif (cap see 1934.206) and forehead cloth (seen here). Individual motifs representing England appear within the scrolls, such as the Tudor rose, carnation, honeysuckle, and acorn. Fashionable ladies wore coifs in the house as semiformal dress and in bed for receiving guests. The large loops along its lower edge were drawn together to keep it in place. Worn pointing backward, the forehead cloth functioned like a visor, supposedly preventing wrinkles and keeping off the sun and cold air.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineForehead Cloth, late 1500s. England, Elizabethan Period, late 16th century. Silk, gold and silver thread, sequins, padding, linen; embroidery; overall: 16.8 x 38.7 cm (6 5/8 x 15 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1934.231
