Cleveland Museum of Art

Forehead Cloth

Date

late 1500s

Medium

Silk, gold and silver thread, sequins, padding, linen; embroidery

Culture

England, Elizabethan Period, late 16th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Sumptuous interlacing scrolls bearing flora and fruit embroidered with gold, silver, and silk thread decorate this set composed of a coif (cap see 1934.206) and forehead cloth (seen here). Individual motifs representing England appear within the scrolls, such as the Tudor rose, carnation, honeysuckle, and acorn. Fashionable ladies wore coifs in the house as semiformal dress and in bed for receiving guests. The large loops along its lower edge were drawn together to keep it in place. Worn pointing backward, the forehead cloth functioned like a visor, supposedly preventing wrinkles and keeping off the sun and cold air.

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