Object Timeline

1915

  • Work on this object began.

1925

  • Work on this object ended.

1943

  • We acquired this object.

1970

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2015

2017

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2024

  • You found it!

Altar Set (USA)

This is a Altar set . It was association: Scuola d'Industrie Italiane. It is dated ca. 1920 and we acquired it in 1943. Its medium is linen and its technique is plain weave with cut work and embroidery. It is a part of the Textiles department.


The Scuola d'Industrie Italiane was founded in 1906 with the idea both of preserving the dying art of Italian needle lace, and of providing young Italian immigrant women in New York with a respectable way to earn a living. Operating out of the Richmond Hill Settlement House at 28 MacDougal Street, the school’s students produced lace for domestic and ecclesiastical use, patterned after Italian laces of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This chalice veil is part of an altar set modeled after a sixteenth century Italian example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This object was donated by Mrs. Florence Colgate Speranza and Scuola d'Industrie Italiane. It is credited Gift of Scuola d' Industrie Italiane in New York through Florence Colgate Speranza.

  • Sampler (England)
  • silk and linen embroidery on linen foundation.
  • Bequest of Rosalie Coe, from the collection inherited from her mother, Eva....
  • 1974-42-3

Its dimensions are

H x W (a): 58.7 × 58.7 cm (23 1/8 × 23 1/8 in.) H x W (b): 53.8 × 53.7 cm (21 3/16 × 21 1/8 in.) H x W (c): 20.7 × 19.5 cm (8 1/8 × 7 11/16 in.) H x W (d): 26.5 × 25.2 cm (10 7/16 × 9 15/16 in.)

Cite this object as

Altar Set (USA); Association: Scuola d'Industrie Italiane; linen; H x W (a): 58.7 × 58.7 cm (23 1/8 × 23 1/8 in.) H x W (b): 53.8 × 53.7 cm (21 3/16 × 21 1/8 in.) H x W (c): 20.7 × 19.5 cm (8 1/8 × 7 11/16 in.) H x W (d): 26.5 × 25.2 cm (10 7/16 × 9 15/16 in.); Gift of Scuola d' Industrie Italiane in New York through Florence Colgate Speranza; 1943-41-1-a/d

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18569135/ |title=Altar Set (USA) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>