Headdress

In the pictureA large headdress sits on a white mannequin head. The lower part is a dark brown velvet band embroidered in metallic thread with flowering sprigs and leaves and set with small spangles and raised beige flower buds. Above it, beige cloth gathered into very fine pleats spreads out toward the back like a disk, its edge crimped and curled in overlapping layers. The disk is more than twice as wide as the band and floats above the head like a large halo. White netting shows beneath the band at the forehead; it appears to have been added for display. The photograph was taken at an angle, with the mannequin turned to the left.

BackgroundAccording to the record, the materials are cotton and metal, it measures 20.3 × 30.5 cm, and it dates to the fourth quarter of the 19th century. Headdresses with large, upright pleated cloth appear in women's folk dress in many regions of 19th-century Europe, and the size and direction of the pleats differed from village to village. To set pleats this fine, the cloth was probably starched and pressed. The collection record gives no region. It was in the Brooklyn Museum's collection from 1924 and moved with Brooklyn's costume collection when it came to the Met in 2009. Unlike a gold 18th-century cap from the same collection, its decoration is concentrated on the band alone.

Puzzle tipThe grain of the pleated cloth spreads out like the ribs of a fan, so its slant tells left from right. First fit the gold flowering-sprig pieces on the brown velvet band, then attach the straight inner pleats of the cloth above it, followed by its curled outer edge. The lower right of the disk is in shadow and darker. The white face and netting gather below the band. The bluish-gray background goes last. 48 pieces works well. The spangles on the band remain useful clues to position even when cut off at piece edges.