Yoruba Asoke Strip-Woven Cloth

Burgundy with olive-gold pinstripes and a ragged right edge that has stories to tell.

This asoke strip-woven cloth is Yoruba, from Nigeria, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is cotton. Yoruba weavers generally work on narrow looms, producing long, thin strips of cloth that are then sewn edge to edge into a wider textile. Horizontal stripes in thin gold and green lines cross a deep wine ground. Dark blotches spread across the surface, and the right edge is notched and uneven, with a few short loose threads at the corners. It is 60 inches wide and 83 long.

Rumpled, stained, and still wearing its stripes well.