The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Coif, a close-fitting cap, laid out flat and embroidered in gold and silver thread with flowers and fruit against a beige background. Columns of teardrop-shaped outlines overlap, a flower or leaf shape in each one, with curls winding on either side framing more flowers, leaves, and fruit.

Coif

late 1500s

England, Elizabethan Period, late 16th century

Silk, gold and silver thread, sequins, padding, linen; embroidery
Overall: 21 x 42.2 cm (8 1/4 x 16 5/8 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1934.206
Location: Not on view

Description

According to Elizabethan embroidery scholar Jacqui Carey, construction of this woman’s coif is typical of the period, as is its design. The coif is a single piece of embroidered plain weave linen, cut in the usual way. The embroidery features pomegranate, honeysuckle, rose, carnation and acorn motifs set within stylized undulating stems and foliage. Most of the embroidery is worked with two distinct types of metal thread (thin metal strips wrapped around a silk core)—gilt thread and silver thread which has tarnished to black. Black silk thread also is used for the embroidery. Nine different stitches are used on the coif, including Elizabethan blanket stitch (variation three), Elizabethan ladder with filling, chain stitch, Elizabethan double Vandyke/twisted chain, Elizabethan plaited braid stitch (standard version), Elizabethan Ceylon stitch, Elizabethan trellis stitch, corded double detached buttonhole, and Elizabethan spider’s web. Many of the motifs are padded underneath the embroidery, likely with wool.
  • This plain weave linen coif is embroidered with both silver and gold thread. The gold thread was laid down in parallel rows and couched (stitched) to the silk substrate with silk thread. The core of the metal thread is cream silk. Wound around the core like a barber pole is a thin, narrow strip of either silver or gold metal. The darker areas seen here are embroidered in silver which has tarnished over time; the gold does not tarnish and retains its luster.
  • Underhill, Gertrude. "Old Embroideries in the Museum: Three English Embroideries." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 21, no. 8 (1934). p. 123-25 25137641
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 264 archive.org
    Nguyen, Tricia Wilson. “Scandal and Imprisonment: Gold Spinners of 17th Century England.” In Hidden Stories/ Human Lives: Proceedings of the Textile Society of America 17th Biennial Symposium, October 15-17, 2020. (2021). digitalcommons.unl.edu
  • Art of Embroidery in Late Medieval Europe (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 2020-April 11, 2021).
    Only for Beauty? (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 2014-December 7, 2015).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=Coif|url=false|author=|year=late 1500s|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1934.206