Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Stacked rhombus ripples in hair-fine lines, each with a black spark in the center.

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. Concentric lozenges drawn in very fine black and cream lines fill a tall panel, each centered on a small black triangle. The pattern is mirrored top to bottom, and the ground is pale. Edges are lightly hemmed and a bit uneven. The panel is 19.5 inches wide by 22.5 long.

Ripples from a pond that politely stayed still.