This is a brown falcon hood. The front, top, and back of the hood is comprised of dark brown leather decorated along its edges with bands of stamped circles bordered on either side by rows of tooled dots. The sides of the hood are made of a faded red velvet attached to the leather with a similar faded red silk stitching. The visible side panel are a group of five decorative embroidered feathers arranged in a fan shape. The embroidery is done in with a silver metallic yarn that has tarnished, muting its color. Metallic beads have been affixed along the edge of the panel. On top of the hood, emerging from the tooled leather is a decorative tassel of faded red silk. It is tightly bough at the bottom by a tarnished silver metallic yarn. A poof of silk emerges from the top of the column of wrapped metallic yarn. The front of the hood has a slit in the leather with a leather tab for fastening.

There are 2 other images of this object. This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions), and as such we offer a high-resolution image of it. See our image rights statement.

See more objects with the tag hunting, falcon, birds, leather, plume, hunters, falconer.

Object Timeline

1950	We acquired this object.
2013	We photographed this object.
2015	We photographed this object. We photographed this object. This was an Object of the Day.
2018	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Falcon's Hood

This is a Falcon's hood. It is dated early 17th century and we acquired it in 1950. Its medium is label: tooled leather, silk velvet embroidered with metallic yarns and metal beads, silk tassel. It is a part of the Textiles department.

Falconry is an ancient hunting method wherein falcons and other birds of prey are trained to attack wild quarry in its natural habitat. Requiring significant investments of time and money, the sport was largely limited to the upper rungs of society, and the birds themselves were held in high estimation.

Hoods were an important article of falconry equipment, worn to reduce visual input while the falcon was at rest. Their design was based on regional convention, with European, Indian, and Arab examples differing in shape and ornamentation. Like most European hoods, this example features a triangular gap in the front for the bird’s beak, and an additional gap in the back where the hood is secured. Made of tooled leather with embroidered velvet panels and an orange metal-wrapped tuft, it resembles a British hood in the Victoria and Albert collection (T.244-1960), which dates from the early seventeenth century.

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Fit for a Falcon.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Elsie De Wolfe.

A zoomed in piece of folded silk fabric with a pale yellow background accented with bright pink splatters. Overlaying this pattern are double black lines that coninuously intersect each other in the feeling of a road map. The pink splatters and black intersecting lines become more dense toward the right side of the fabric creating a more chaotic feeling. Because of the folds in the fabric, certain areas appear out of focus.

BioMess, 2019
specimins, hybridoma cells, display cases.
Courtesy of The Tissue Culture and Art Project.
NATURE.051

Its dimensions are

H x W: 10.2 × 7 cm (4 × 2 3/4 in.)

Cite this object as

Falcon's Hood; label: tooled leather, silk velvet embroidered with metallic yarns and metal beads, silk tassel; H x W: 10.2 × 7 cm (4 × 2 3/4 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Elsie De Wolfe; 1950-90-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Rebeca Méndez Selects.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2CeBk/
Accession Number 1950-90-1
Object ID 18386309