Corner Fragment with a Variety of Patterns (1800s): Art, History and Details

Corner Fragment with a Variety of Patterns (1800s) 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 main 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: Corner Fragment with a Variety of Patterns
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Bleached linen (est.): needle lace, machine-made burato (twined ground and darned in two directions), cutwork, drawnwork, and applied fringe
• Dimensions: Overall: 79.8 x 71.4 cm (31 7/16 x 28 1/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1933.334

A detail from the museum

The various techniques used in this fragment suggest that it may have been made as a sampler to practice different lacemaking techniques.

Collection credit

Bequest of Louise Tifft Brown

Further reading listed by the museum

• Underhill, Gertrude. "Louise Tifft Brown Bequest of Lace." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 20, no. 10 (1933): 157-59.

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.