The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 11, 2024

Scarf

Scarf

early 1900s
Probably cotton and silver-plated copper foil
Overall: 221 x 82.2 cm (87 x 32 3/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Edward N. Dekker, Sr. 1974.1058
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

There is so much metal in this shawl that it weighs nearly 4.5 pounds.

Description

Egyptians may have innovated tulle-bi-telli (“net with metal,” also called assiut) after the French introduced machine-made netted fabric (tulle) in the late 1800s. It drew from telli, an earlier metal embroidery technique. Diamond and rectangle designs formed by knotting flattened silver wire into black tulle indicate this scarf’s early age in the genre. Urban Egyptian singers and dancers performed in heavy, shimmering tulle-bi-telli costumes during the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. Elite Egyptian city dwellers also wore it. Similar ones were sold at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and to tourists in Egypt, a possible origin for this example. In the US, tulle-bi-telli scarves were made into home decor and 1920s flapper-style clothing.
  • 1974
    Mrs. Edward N. Dekker, Sr., gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1974-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Gillow, John. African Textiles: Colour and Creativity Across a Continent. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. 152-53
  • Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Scarf|url=false|author=|year=early 1900s|access-date=11 October 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.1058