Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Concentric diamonds fade into a busier lower half of checkered tiles.

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. Pale tan ground. The upper two thirds is a calm field of nested concentric diamonds, then below a horizontal line the pattern shifts to smaller diamonds with checkered black and tan centers. A thin tan hem edges the cloth. It measures 17.5 inches wide and 22.75 long.

Starts in meditation and finishes in a small riot.