The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Two highly fragmented strips of the decorated ends of a shawl, a red band decorated with white and yellow-brown abstracted animals running across the center of the blue-black textile. Above and below the red band run white and yellow-brown organic shapes. While missing sections of the red band break off cleanly, the blue-black textile shows loosened threads in the weaving, breaking off into threads.

Decorated ends of a shawl

770–887 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)

Egypt, Fayyum, Tulunid or Ikshīdid period

Wool, linen, and silk: plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave
Overall: 41.9 x 68.6 cm (16 1/2 x 27 in.)
Gift of The Textile Arts Club 1956.330
Location: Not on view
  • Until 1856, when British chemist William Henry Perkin discovered the first synthetic dye (mauvine), dyestuffs were sourced from nature—plant or animal materials. It was expected that the dyes used in this fragment dating from the late 700s or early 800s would be natural dyes. In conjunction with a 2021 exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums to which Cleveland lent this textile, the conservation scientist at Harvard undertook dye analysis using a technique known as high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy (HPLC-MS), and determined this fiber was dyed red using lac, a resinous secretion of the lac insect. This dyestuff was commonly used in the Islamic period in Egypt, consistent with the dating of this textile.
  • ?–1956
    (Mrs. Paul [Marguerite] Mallon [d. 1977], New York, NY, and Paris, France, sold to the Textile Arts Club for gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1956–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Wadsworth Atheneum, Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, 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. 17, no. 9
    Wardwell, Anne E. Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club, 1934-1984 : [Exhibition] 21 November-30 December 1984, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum, 1984. p. 17, cat. no. 9
    Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 90, fig. 3.5; Mentioned: P. 89
    McWilliams, Mary, and Jochen A. Sokoly. Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Art Museums, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 118-119
  • Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Egyptian Tombs, 9th - 12th Century. Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (January 22-May 8, 2022) https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/5836/social-fabrics-inscribed-textiles-from-medieval-egyptian-tombs.
    Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991).
    Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 21-December 30, 1984).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Decorated ends of a shawl|url=false|author=|year=770–887 (radiocarbon date, 95.4% probability)|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.330