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Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover

16th–17th century, inventoried 1674
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
At the end of the nineteenth century, when the National Museum in Copenhagen de-accessioned this early Kongo textile, it was acquired by a discerning collector of textiles who donated it to the British Museum. In the pattern on this narrow rectangular cushion cover, figure and ground have been joined to form a single plane of interlocking branches that contains a high degree of visual tension. The bands have become shifting “T” shapes. Both cut and uncut supplementary weft surfaces are equally balanced. The interlocking motifs are outlined and articulated through alternating narrow bands of uncut and cut pile, while their interior surfaces are filled with cut-pile split diamonds.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Luxury Cloth: Cushion Cover
  • Date: 16th–17th century, inventoried 1674
  • Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo; Republic of the Congo; Angola
  • Culture: Kongo peoples; Kongo Kingdom
  • Medium: Raffia
  • Dimensions: 20 7/8 x 9 in. (53 x 23 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Woven
  • Credit Line: British Museum, London
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing