Border with Peacock Motif (1700s–1800s): Art, History and Details

Border with Peacock Motif (1700s–1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This valance, a decorative drapery made for attachment at the frame of the bed, was a typical object from the dowry of a bride in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Russia. The valance, which shows a magnificent peacock flanked by temples or shrines, would have been made for the wedding night of a newlywed couple.

Object facts

• Title: Border with Peacock Motif
• Date: 1700s–1800s
• Culture: Russia
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Linen: needle lace (cutwork and drawnwork), straight (continuous) bobbin lace, tape lace edging; applied silk (est.) ribbon and embroidery
• Dimensions: Overall: 52.1 x 145.4 cm (20 1/2 x 57 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1921.1141

A detail from the museum

Handmade lace for marriage dowries was produced in large quantities in Russia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

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.