Rare, Royal, Red Check Kuba Cloth

The central panel comprises alternate squares of coarse plain raffia and finely woven red dyed raffia, the plain panels embellished with cowrie shells. Bordered to one edge with the traditional cut pile embroidery ubiquitous to Kuba textiles, and to the other edge with a blue and white check of reverse applique. 335cm x 70cm (132 x 27.5 inches) Early to mid 20th century, circa 1940’s/50’s.

The creation of these beautiful Kuba cloths from the Democratic Republic of Congo is a community affair. The men, exclusively, are responsible for weaving the raffia panels which are then transformed and embellished by the women into a variety of textiles.

This example is a ceremonial skirt, either a ntshak (women's skirt) or a mapel (mens skirt). The red panels are a prerogative of the royal clan, while the cowrie shells are also indicative of power and wealth. See the last images on the listing, taken by photo journalist Angelo Turconi, of dancers wearing strikingly similar textiles at the Royal Court, Zaire in the 1980’s. 

Condition:

Excellent, original unrestored condition with only minimal signs of age and wear. One missing cowrie shell, some minor staining to the front, and a couple of very small holes to one or two of the raffia panels. Possibly cut down from a longer piece, the top (as hung in our images) is unfinished/unhemmed which has caused approx 1cm of stitching to come loose where the border panels are joined to the central panels. The cut pile embroidery is slightly worn at the bottom end, with a thinner pile than the top. Please see images and video for detailed condition.

You can find out much more about these fascinating textiles in this excellent article

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