Cloth with Border of Vegetal Motifs and Insertion with Bird Motifs (1700s): Art, History and Details

Cloth with Border of Vegetal Motifs and Insertion with Bird Motifs (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Textiles often incorporate multiple needlework techniques within a single piece. One of the techniques in this example of lace is called cutwork. In cutwork, portions of the textile ground, such as a linen or cotton cloth, are cut away and threads are removed to create holes. The edges of the hole are then reinforced with embroidery and a pattern of needle lace can be created within the perimeter. Rather than adding to the cloth to create a design, the craftsperson removes threads to fabricate a pattern.

Object facts

• Title: Cloth with Border of Vegetal Motifs and Insertion with Bird Motifs
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: Cyprus ?, 1700s
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Plain weave wool with needle lace, burato insertion (twined ground and darned in two directions), filet/lacis border and edging (knotted ground and darned in one direction), drawn work, and embroidery; bleached linen (est.), wool (est.), and cotton (est.)
• Dimensions: Overall: 72.6 x 233.6 cm (28 9/16 x 91 15/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1933.311

A detail from the museum

This lace was given to the museum by Louise Tifft Brown, a native Clevelander who became an expert in lace while living in Venice for 35 years.

Collection credit

Bequest of Louise Tifft Brown

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.