Pelerine (Collar or Cape) (c. 1830–1860): Art, History and Details

Pelerine (Collar or Cape) (c. 1830–1860) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Experts argue about collars of this type: Did a Great Lakes native artist make it, using as a model an English lady’s pelerine and exotic feathers obtained through trade? Or was the collar created by a European feather worker, perhaps after seeing the spectacular feather capes of native Hawaiian royals who visited England in 1824? There are arguments for both views—and for further research.

Object facts

• Title: Pelerine (Collar or Cape)
• Date: c. 1830–1860
• Culture: Northeastern Woodlands, Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River Region or Europe
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Cotton, peacock feathers, guinea fowl feathers?, Gadwalls duck feathers
• Dimensions: Overall (display): 78.7 x 63.5 x 22.9 cm (31 x 25 x 9 in.); Overall: 92.7 x 166.4 cm (36 1/2 x 65 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Native North American
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1996.14

Collection credit

Gift of the Textile Art Alliance in honor of their 60th Anniversary

Further reading listed by the museum

• Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008.
• Young, Martha. "A Focus on Fiber." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 49, no. 10 (December 2009): 8-9.
• Keefe, Anna Rose, "Forgotten Fashions: Feather Pelerines of the Nineteenth Century" (2016). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 950.

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.