Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Jostling black diamonds and dotted clusters over a loose tan lattice.

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. Solid black diamonds and small four-dot clusters scatter across a tan ground, held by pale, slanting bands that cross one another. The spacing is irregular and the black has a soft, slightly worn look. A rose-tan border frames the edges. It measures 19 inches wide and 19 long.

Happily off the grid, and nobody is complaining.