Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1947

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2023

2025

  • You found it!

Textile, Pretty Penny Drapery for City National Bank, Houston, Texas

This is a Textile. It was designed by Dorothy Wright Liebes.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes.

It is dated 1947. Its medium is handwoven cotton, silk, rayon, and lurex (aluminum foil, plastic-coated). It is a part of the Exhibitions department.


Designed for the board room of Houston’s City National Bank in 1947, Pretty Penny is meant to suggest the color and sheen of a newly minted penny. Liebes varied the density of the Lurex yarns to attract the eye, with a deep band of highly reflective Lurex yarns placed behind those seated around the table.

It is credited Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Dorothy Liebes Design Inc., 1973.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 274.3 × 127 cm (9 ft. × 50 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318807743/ |title=Textile, Pretty Penny Drapery for City National Bank, Houston, Texas |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=7 May 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>