Headdress (1800s): Art, History and Details
Headdress at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 1800s, Linen, shells, glass beads, metal coins. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
Headdress (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
This long, colorful headdress would hang over the head and down a woman's back. It consists of several panels of linen sewn together, and densely embroidered with silk thread. On the middle panel, small black, red, white, yellow, and red beads are stitched to create geometric designs. Double rows of small cowrie shells outline them, and metal coins with a crescent moon motif also feature in the decoration. These are first punctured, then stitched onto the textile. The lowermost edge is finished with a red fringe.
Object facts
- Title: Headdress
- Date: 1800s
- Culture: probably southeastern Europe, Balkans
- Type: Garment
- Technique: Linen, shells, glass beads, metal coins
- Dimensions: Average: 142.2 x 33 cm (56 x 13 in.)
- Collection: T - Islamic
- Department: Textiles
- Accession number: 1916.1457
Collection credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade
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.
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