This object is from the collection of Natalia de Shabelsky (1841-1905), a Russian noblewoman compelled to preserve what she perceived as the vanishing folk art traditions of her native country. Traveling extensively throughout Great Russia, she collected many fine examples of textile art of the wealthy peasant class. From the 1870s until moving to France in 1902, Shabelsky amassed a large collection of intricately embroidered hand-woven household textiles and opulent festival garments with rich decoration and elaborate motifs. The Brooklyn Museum holdings include many fine examples including the majority of the garments. Portions of Shabelsky’s collection are also housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Art Museum, and the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg.

Towels such as this were often given as wedding gifts and used in religious ceremonies to hang over mirrors and sacred trees. Cocks, as the harbingers of daylight, were symbols used to ward off evil spirits of the night, and also a symbol of rebirth. The impressive double-sided embroidery showing no knots on either side suggests it was meant to be seen from from both sides,as a hanging.