Mae Festa 50 Years of Collecting Textiles - Peter Pap Oriental Rugs

AFRICA – Sub-Sahara
Wearing Blanket
Mid-20 th Century
Probably Burkina Faso
Warp-faced strip weave. Natural white and
black cotton.
216 x 134 cm 85 x 52¾ in
A fine, lightweight textile woven of handspun yarn,
with six strips 22 cm (8¾ in) wide. It features just
enough design to remind us of the method of weaving
in a long strip, and the necessity for careful counting,
although not nearly so faithfully executed here as in
the Mende blanket. From the 15 th century onwards,
numerous European observers commented on the large,
rectangular cloths worn toga-like by upper class men
along great swaths of the West African coast.
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