This cotton cloth was probably used as a multi-purpose household furnishing and blanket. Its design relates to the wool blankets of the Northern Fulani peoples. The diamond and lozenge designs and the twill-weave structure also suggest North African influences. One of the pieces appealing aspects is the variation within the overall pattern--the dark blue blocks while balanced are not identical.
Description:
Fifteen strips of handsewn, handspun cotton, plain weave with discontinuous supplementary weft in diamond and herringbone twill weaves, in dark blue. With variations design consists of three horizontal stripes near ends and middle. The middle stripe is crossed in the center by a rectangular bar and three rows of diamonds. In each half of the cloth are two block crosses with three block areas in two outer strips. Bundled warps create ridges in white cotton.
Provenance:
Mr. and Mrs. W. Wilmaith, Tucson, Arizona, collected Sierra Leone, 1934
Venice and Alastair Lamb, England, 1983
Exhibition History:
Patterns of Life: West African Strip-Weaving Traditions, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1987-February 29, 1988
Published References:
Gilfoy, Peggy. 1987. Patterns of Life: West African Strip Weaving Traditions. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 63, no.13.
Lamb, Venice and Alastair. 1984. Sierra Leone Weaving. Hertingfordbury, England: Roxford Books, pp. 107-111.
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National Museum of African Art, National Museum of Natural History, purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 1983-85, EJ10409
