Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Tall diamonds stacked in columns, each with a nested heart of black.

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 cloths come from the Kuba kingdom in the Kasai region, where men traditionally wove the raffia ground and women embroidered it. Elongated black and cream diamonds with nested outlines and dark brown centers run in vertical columns, framed by zigzag lines between them. Medium scale, with a golden-tan ground and a hemmed edge, and a little loose thread at lower right. It measures 20 inches wide and 25.5 long.

Stately, vertical and fond of a good outline.