Cleveland Museum of Art

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Date

c 1800– 1825

Medium

plain weave silk (est.) ground with polychrome silk (est.) and metal thread chain stitch embroidery; applied silk (est.) ribbon and metal thread trims

Culture

Russia, Nizhny-Novgorod province, early 19th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This Russian embroidered panel was likely used to embellish the end of a bathing towel. Textiles of this type are valuable for their fine embroidery of ancient folk motifs, ritual significance, exemplification of the role of textiles in their society, and in this case, connection to a prominent woman collector, Natalia de Shabelsky, without whom this textile and others like it might have been lost. Embroidering the ends of everyday towels was a common folk tradition in many cultures because it displayed the skill of the mother or daughter who stitched them.

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