The Kingdom of the Kuba, in the South of the Congo, boasts a distinct textile tradition (see also cat. no. 101).
1: A wrapover dancing skirt called ‘mapel’: Stitched together in this longer ‘mapel’ are six stretches of raffia fabric onto which the women have sawn appliqués of black raffia fabric, resulting in a very vibrant pattern of irregular hooks and dots. The wrapover skirt is trimmed on three sides with brown-dyed fabric displaying light-coloured rings (the result, in the colouring process, of the use of the ‘Plangi technique’). An almost perfect, very well preserved piece with only minor age degradation (no tears). Dimensions: 380 cm x c. 76 cm.
2: A piece of the so-called ‘Kuba’ or ‘Shoowa velvet’. The women of the Kuba subgroup of the Shoowa tribe have developed a notable specialism. Men weave the approximately meter-long raffia-fabric into pieces of roughly one square meter. Women then entwine into the light brown raffia fabric complicated geometric, linear patterns such that the yarns accrue as raised nooses on the face of the fabric. These are then cut with small sharp knives. Thanks to the densely woven base layer, the cut threads are held ‘standing’, creating thereby on the fabric’s face the tuft of the so-called ‘Shoowa velvet’. No bigger than a squared meter, these masterpieces of female Shoowa knit were previously deemed valuables (‘primitive money’). They were exchanged between families as ‘bride price’, laid on the ground and at holy sites as status symbols or placed by the deceased in the grave. The present, very beautiful piece of ‘Shoowa velvet’ even boasts no fewer than ten different geometric patterns, all exemplary of the Kuba’s rich repertoire of approximately 200 decorative patterns: ‘infinite knots’, entwined band motifs, rhomboids, hooks etc. A perfect piece, no damage. DM: c. 60 cm x 60 cm.
Both textiles of this mixed lot: first half of the 20th century. (ME)

Provenance: Austrian Private Collection.