Band with Leaf Motifs (1600s): Art, History and Details

Band with Leaf Motifs (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A scrolling vine with budding vegetation or a tendril motif is a recurring pattern in needle lace. The frequent use of the motif, adapted in lace from different centuries and regions, suggests that it was found in a pattern book. The maker of this piece used thread of different thicknesses to give texture and variety to the design.

Object facts

• Title: Band with Leaf Motifs
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Italy, Sardinia
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Bleached linen (est.): needle lace, filet/lacis (knotted ground and darned in one and two directions)
• Dimensions: Overall: 20.2 x 68.8 cm (7 15/16 x 27 1/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1936.222

A detail from the museum

Books of patterns for lace making and other needlework were aimed at well-to-do women and girls as a way of encouraging domestic virtue.

Collection credit

The Frances McIntosh Sherwin Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.