Cover with Border of Abstract Floral Motifs (1700s): Art, History and Details

Cover with Border of Abstract Floral Motifs (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Notable for its bright and valued colors, this cover has a needle lace border of natural and organic motifs attached to a silk cloth. The lace is divided into two registers, possibly representing stylized plants and flowers growing above ground with their roots growing in pots beneath them.

Object facts

• Title: Cover with Border of Abstract Floral Motifs
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: Italy ?, 1700s
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Rose silk (est.) center: plain weave Silk (est.) embroidery on unidentified ground fiber border: needle lace, burato (twined ground and darned in one direction)
• Dimensions: Overall: 133.4 x 114 cm (52 1/2 x 44 7/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1921.84

A detail from the museum

The large size and square form suggest that this textile would likely have been used as a table cloth.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Edward S. Page

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.