id: 109639 accession number: 1928.270 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.270 updated: 2025-06-13 19:15:35.903000 Americana Prints: Tugs (No. 722), 1927. Antonio Petruccelli (American, 1907–1994), Stehli Silks Corporation (America, Lancaster, PA, and New York, 1840–c. 1955). Silk: plain weave, roller printed; overall: 52.7 x 99.7 cm (20 3/4 x 39 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Stehli Silks Corporation, 1928.270 title: Tugs (No. 722) title in original language: series: Americana Prints series in original language: creation date: 1927 creation date earliest: 1927 creation date latest: 1927 current location: creditline: Gift of the Stehli Silks Corporation copyright: --- culture: America, New York technique: Silk: plain weave, roller printed department: Textiles collection: Textiles type: Textile find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Antonio Petruccelli (American, 1907–1994) - artist Fifteen artists, most of whom were well-known for their advertising and illustration work and were established chroniclers of American life, were chosen by Stehli’s art director Kneeland (Ruzzie) Green to design for Stehli’s Americana Prints series. The exception to this was Antonio Petruccelli. When he designed Tugs for Stehli silks in 1927, Petrucelli was a young man not yet 20 years old; this was his only design for the Americana Prints series. He had been a student at New York Textile High School and in 1927 won first prize in a textile design contest sponsored by the Art Alliance of America. Designs in this competition were offered to textile manufacturers; it is assumed that this is how Petruccelli caught the attention of Ruzzie Green. Petruccelli went on to make a name in the graphic arts with covers for Fortune, Vanity Fair, Life, and the New Yorker magazines in the 1930s and 40s. * Stehli Silks Corporation (America, Lancaster, PA, and New York, 1840–c. 1955) - designed by Founded in 1837 in Obfelden, Switzerland, by the Stehli family, the original cotton mill transitioned to weaving silk in 1840. By the 1890s, half of the silk produced by Stehli was being shipped to the United States; at that point moving production closer to the customer base made economic sense. Stehli opened their first US mill in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1898 and at the same time established an office in New York City, becoming one of the first American silk manufacturers. By the mid-1920s, Stehli operated five mills in three states—Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. In those two decades, Stehli’s business increased fourteen fold. A significant product line was their three Americana Prints series of 1925-1927, under art director and artist Kneeland “Ruzzie” Green. In a deliberate attempt to shift the silk industry away from traditional French design, the three series focused on imagery of contemporary American life. Fifteen well-known artists were commissioned to design 86 silk patterns. --- measurements: Overall: 52.7 x 99.7 cm (20 3/4 x 39 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES