Artwork Page for Prestige cloth (kete or kente)

Details / Information for Prestige cloth (kete or kente)

Prestige cloth (kete or kente)

c. 1930s–50s

Africa, West Africa, Ghana or Togo, Ewe-style weaver

Medium
Cotton and dye
Measurements
Overall: 322.6 x 175.3 cm (127 x 69 in.)
Credit Line
L. E. Holden Fund 2023.9
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

Look closely! The weaver added extra weft (horizontal) threads to create shapes like hands, birds, insects, knives, combs, and four-legged animals.

Description

An elite Ghanaian or Togolese man wore this garment at special occasions. Wrapped around his waist and tossed over his shoulder, the kete’s vibrant colors and many patterns would have made his wealth apparent. The weaver made this in a single strip, which he or a tailor then cut into twenty strips and sewed together by hand. The man who made this was highly skilled, alternating passages of weaving featuring the warp (vertical) or weft (horizontal) threads—as well as inserting extra weft threads to make patterns in different shapes.
Cotton garment with rows of rectangles and squares striped with predominantly warm colors, alternating in width between horizontal and vertical, and some overlapping. Occasionally stylized hands, insects, animals, and other geometric shapes have been woven in a single color over patches.

Prestige cloth (kete or kente)

c. 1930s–50s

Africa, West Africa, Ghana or Togo, Ewe-style weaver

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