Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Woven-looking basket bands, laid so convincingly the cloth seems to be plaited.

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. Overlapping diagonal strips in tan and cream imitate a plaited weave, with black diamond dots filling the gaps. A narrow hem edges the cloth. It is 20 inches across and 23 long.

Cloth pretending to be basketry, and doing it with a straight face.