Fragment of a Border with Vines and Floral Motifs (1600s): Art, History and Details

Fragment of a Border with Vines and Floral Motifs (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The light blue ground of this fragment of lace, together with the varying thicknesses of threads used for the ground and the embroidered pattern, create a sense of depth in the textile. The white thread is bleached linen and the blue is linen that has been bleached and dyed.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment of a Border with Vines and Floral Motifs
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Lace
• Technique: Bleached and blue dyed linen (est.): needle lace, filet/lacis (knotted ground and darned in one direction) and bobbin lace edging
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.5 x 17.4 cm (5 5/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: T - Lace
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1920.1129

A detail from the museum

The word lace derives from the Latin laqueus, meaning noose.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ricci, Elisa. Old Italian Lace. 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.