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Towel End
c 1700s- 1800s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This Russian lace panel was likely used to embellish the end of a bathing towel. Textiles of this type are valuable for their fine lace making including 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.
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Details
- Title: Towel End
- Date Created: c 1700s- 1800s
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 45.7 x 42.9 cm (18 x 16 7/8 in.)
- Provenance: Collection of Natalia Leonidovna Shabelsky, Moscow, Russia (1841-1904/5), by inheritance to her daughters, Princess Alexandre Sidamon-Eristoff and Mlle. N. de Chabelskoy, sold through B.M. Pushkin, Count B. M. Pushkin sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
- Type: Embroidery
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1931.110
- Medium: cotton or linen (est.); straight (continuous) bobbin lace (Vologda tape lace). The tape forms figural or plants motifs outlined with gimp (heavy cord) with a polychrome plaited ground linking the tape; applied silk (est.) ribbon and metal thread trim
- Fun Fact: Embellishing the ends of everyday towels was a common folk tradition in many cultures because it displayed the skill of the mother or daughter who made this lace.
- Department: Textiles
- Culture: Russia, Nizhny-Novgorod province, 18th-19th century
- Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Collection: Textiles
- Accession Number: 1931.110
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