Kuba Tcaka or Dance Skirt with Marquetry Motifs

Rows of boxed crosses and bars in black and cream, trimmed with a shaggy edge.

This tcaka or dance skirt with marquetry motifs is Kuba, from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is applique raffia & cowrie. Typical woven panels measure about 26 by 28 inches and are sewn together into the great length of a wrap-around skirt, which can at times reach beyond twenty feet. Long narrow textile with a dark brown ground and cream rectangular cells holding crosses, bars and hatched blocks. A light fringe or frayed border runs along both edges and the pattern repeats in tidy rows. It is 31 inches wide and 262 long.

Orderly cells, with an edge that has not been tamed.