 | AnthroArts |
|
Home |
|
AN EXEMPLARY KUBA MAN'S MAPEL browse these categories for related items... Directory: Antiques:Regional Art:African:Textiles: Pre 1920: Item # 597119
AnthroArts By Appointment Only San Diego, California 619-801-1553 Guest Book SOLD |
|
|
| Kuba Peoples, Congo. This wonderful textile is actually a young man's skirt - as the Kuba traditionally wear, for important occasions. Showing all the hallmarks of very high status - and by these points one could see at a glance the status of the wearer - this would have been worn by a young man of some nobility. Carefully constructed in five panels of hand-woven raffia (raffia viniferis) (and among the Kuba, it is the men who do the weaving), the use of the raffia ball fringe denotes male usage, exclusively; additionally, the checkerboard border (also a male hallmark, and one reserved for high status personages)is carefully constructed from trade cloth (high status) using 'french-seam' work; the use of cowrie shell traditionally was reserved for royalty or Nobility; and additionally, the openwork in the field 'ikweemy' was traditionally the most revered work, among the Kuba. Measuring an impressive eight feet in length (96" x 19") (244 x 49 cm.) this is one of two nearly identical examples that we have - the other longer still - and the Provenance that came with this piece is that was formerly that of one of the Royal Princes; and while we cannot verify that, this has all the hallmarks of being so. | ||
|
||||||
| Home | Join | Shops | Map | Terms | Help | |