Fragment of a Border with Floral Vine and Geometric Patterns (1500s): Art, History and Details

Fragment of a Border with Floral Vine and Geometric Patterns (1500s) 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 techniques within a single piece, providing visual interest, and also demonstrating the skill and versatility of the maker. This fragment incorporates both reticella, a type of geometric needle lace worked on a grid of plaited or laid thread, and a border of burato.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment of a Border with Floral Vine and Geometric Patterns
• Date: 1500s
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Bleached linen (est.): needle lace, burato (twined ground and darned in two directions) and reticella
• Dimensions: Overall: 32.9 x 69.3 cm (12 15/16 x 27 5/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1920.1267

A detail from the museum

Myrta Leonora Jones, the donor of this lace, was a women’s rights activist in Cleveland in the early 20th century.

Collection credit

Gift of Myrta Leonora Jones

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ricci, Elisa. Old Italian Lace. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1913.

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.