The article examines the ornamental decoration of the collection of the Ukrainian folk towels of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve «Pereyaslav» (hereinafter – NHER «Pereyaslav»), which includes more than four thousand items from various ethnographic regions of Ukraine. The chronological limits of this collection are determined by XVIII-XXI ct. The Museum objects differ in the technique of execution: woven, embroidered, punched.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the ornamental decoration of towels of Pereyaslav Oblast, Poltava Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast and the city of Krolevets, taking into account the technology of their manufacture and ornamentation. A small collection of towels from the Ternopil region is particularly interesting.

It has been established that the collection contains products from various ethnographic regions of Ukraine: Central Dnipro region, Polissia, Slobozhan region. The collection of towels from Pereyaslavshchyna is quite voluminous. It was determined that according to the production technology, towels are woven and embroidered using various techniques. Among the collection, according to the compositional structure and ornamental decoration, the «godly», monastic and «Krolevetski» towels stand out. In general, the ornamentation of towels is characterized by the use of geometric, plant, anthropomorphic and ornithomorphic motifs. It has been studied that they can be both close to the original images and stylized. In some cases, there is a calligraphic element introduced into the ornamentation on the products. This mainly applies to towels with a plot composition. It was found that on products of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. two-color decoration prevails, either on home-made ones or on manufactured «Krolevetsk» ones. At the same time, the embroidered towels of this period have a slightly larger color range. It was found that from the second half of the 20th century. on woven towels, in particular from Pereyaslavshchyna, the use of multi-colored threads and the change of ornamental motifs are recorded. The color scheme of the towels of the art product factories kept in the collection remains mostly constant, i.e. two-color for ornaments and with a white background of the canvas. On the embroidered towels of this period, the use of multi-colored decoration is observed, which significantly enriches its visual perception.

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