The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Full conservation statement
  The narrow band at the top of this fragment is an example of tablet weaving which employs a stack of cards, about 3 inches square, with a hole punched in each corner. The warp is laced through the holes in the cards, and then the cards are turned clockwise or counterclockwise to allow the weft to be inserted. Both gold and silver thread were used in this tablet-woven band; the dark interlaced diamonds motif in the center of this image were woven with silver that has tarnished and darkened over time.
• Provenance
  originally from a church in Cologne, Germany

  Dr. Leopold Seligmann, Cologne, Germany

  ?–1939

  (Estate of H. A. Elsberg [1869–1938], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

  1939–

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
• Citations
  Witte, Fritz. Die liturgischen Gewänder und kirchlichen Stickereien des Schnütgenmuseums Köln. Berlin: Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft. 1926. tafel 45, p. 17, no. 5

  Hermann Ball & Paul Graupe (Berlin, Germany). Die Sammlung Dr. Leopold Seligmann, Koln. 1930. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 209, pl. LXXVI

  Underhill, Gertrude. "Textiles from the H. A. Elsberg Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 9 (November 1939): 143–146. 25138043

  Dohme Breeskin, Adelyn and Charles Crehore Cunningham. 2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving: A Loan Exhibition : Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Dec. 7, 1951 to Jan. 27, 1952; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Feb. 27, 1952 to Mar. 25, 1952. Hartford, CT: Wardsworth Atheneum, 1951. p. 33

  Weibel, Adèle Coulin. Two Thousand Years of Textiles; The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East. New York: Published for the Detroit Institute of Arts [by] Pantheon Books, 1952. Reproduced: fig. 183

  Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 27, 58, cat. no. 8, fig. 16

  Spies, Nancy. Ecclesiastical Pomp & Aristocratic Circumstance: A Thousand Years of Brocaded Tabletwoven Bands. Jarrettsville, MD: Arelate Studio, 2000. p. 182, 194, 277

  Pritchard, Frances. Crafting Textiles: Tablet Weaving, Sprang, Lace and Other Techniques from the Bronze Age to the Early 17th Century. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2021. p. 1-69
• Exhibition History
  Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985).

  Masterpieces of the Weavers' Art, Hackley Art Gallery, Muskegon, MI (October 7-November 3, 1957).

  2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT (December 7, 1951-January 27, 1952); Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (February 27-March 25, 1952).

  2000 Years of Silk Weaving. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 18-April 16, 1944).
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Fragment of a Reliquary Bag|url=false|author=|year=1250–99|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}