Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Chocolate brown diamonds with tiny black and cream hourglass hearts, split by a chevron stripe.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Shoowa embroiderers generally work in geometric designs, and the patterns are often said to be composed as the stitching goes. Brown ground covered in diamonds that each hold a small black and cream hourglass motif. A narrow vertical strip of black chevrons divides the field. The panel is 21.5 inches wide by 24.25 long.

Chocolate tones with a spine of chevrons holding it upright.