Artwork Page for Forehead Cloth

Details / Information for Forehead Cloth

Forehead Cloth

late 1500s
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England, Elizabethan Period, late 16th century

Medium
Silk, gold and silver thread, sequins, padding, linen; embroidery
Measurements
Overall: 16.8 x 38.7 cm (6 5/8 x 15 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1934.231
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

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.
A triangular tan silk cloth is embroidered with swirling floral patterns in glinting gold, dark blue, and black threads. At the center, a flowering vine rises toward the peak, flanked on either side by round blossoms. Dark blue and black threads create striped and solid shapes within the flowers, while reflective circular sequins are interspersed across the fabric. A thin, looped border follows the triangular edge, framing the heavily textured stems and shimmering blossoms.

Forehead Cloth

late 1500s

England, Elizabethan Period, late 16th century

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