Textiles Collection
Kimono Furisode 1912-1940, Taisho (1912-1926) or Showa (1926-1989). Japan. Gift of Mrs. D.M. Cheston, Baltimore 1990.113
The BMA's textiles collection of more than 5,000 works spans nearly 2,000 years and features examples of needlework, quilts, laces, furnishings, tapestries, costumes, accessories, wallpaper, and needlework tools from America, Europe, India, Japan, China, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Central Asia.
Recognized for its diversity, the collection ranges from ancient Coptic fragments to innovative late-20th and 21st-century Japanese fabrics. Famed Baltimore collectors Claribel and Etta Cone donated 800 textiles to the BMA, including nearly 400 laces spanning five centuries, while the expanding contemporary collection includes the textiles of Jack Lenor Larsen, and Reiko Sudo, chief designer of the Japanese company NUNO.
Highlights
- printed and woven textiles by William Morris
- early 20th-century fabrics by Alphonse Mucha and Raoul Dufy
- handcrafted Japanese Buddhist priest robes
- Chinese dragon robes
- a celebrated collection of Toiles de Jouy, including numerous examples by Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf
- needleworks, coverlets, and quilts, including examples of the Baltimore Album Quilts
On View
Works in the Textiles Collection are displayed in thematic rotating exhibitions in the Jean and Allan Berman Textile Gallery.
Contact
To contact the Department of Textiles, email textiles@artbma.org.