This cotton blanket illustrates the movement of actual cloth and of weaving styles. Although from Kano in northern Nigeria and probably woven by local Hausa, it has traits in common with Fulani textiles from further west in Niger and Mali. Both locally woven and imported cloths appear in the Kano market. Typically this size and weight of cloth served multiple purposes as blankets and household furnishings.
Description:
Blanket composed of eight strips of handsewn cotton plain weave with cotton inserted weft, white warp and white, dark blue and orange weft.
Provenance:
Bernard Fagg, collected 1961
Venice and Alastair Lamb, England, -- to 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. 55, no. 5.
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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, EJ11057
