Druze women

Although it had nearly disappeared by the middle of the nineteenth century, the tantour had a long tradition of being worn by wealthy Druze and Maronite women, and it was worn by a bride as a sign of her married status. Young girls wore them rarely, and then only if they were of noble birth. A husband customarily presented the tantour to his bride on their wedding day. Scholars have tried to explain their origin, and comparisons have been made with similar bizarre tall headdresses, the Hennins, worn in France by Burgundian noblewomen in the 1460s. Some other commentators even suggest a Mongolian origin, but the lack of documentation makes their origin completely uncertain.

This fine pen and ink drawing is by an accomplished artist, probably a British book-illustrator of the 1820s, whose identity is still as mysterious as the tantour itself. The image may have been intended as an illustration in a book of picturesque costume.