Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Hooked cream diamonds with black teardrops, edged in a pink fringe.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Kuba textiles were woven and embroidered to be worn, gifted and buried with the dead, long before collectors hung them on walls. A cream ground holds fine slanted diamonds, each with a hooked black teardrop inside, tightly repeated in all-over rows. A rosy fringe lines the top and sides, and the right edge is uneven. It measures 23 inches wide and 23 long.

Light on its feet, with ruffles at the hem.