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Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo) - Image 1
Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo) - Image 2
Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo) - Image 3
Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo) - Image 4

Vai and Mende

Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo)

Vai or Mende, 1900-1927

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Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo)

Vai or Mende, 1900-1927

Physical Qualities Cotton, 124 x 270 cm. (48 13/16 x 106 5/16 in.)
Credit Line Purchase with exchange funds from the Maurice and Florence A. Caplan Collection
Object Number 1998.482
These two furnishing blankets originate from neighborhing areas and are made from strip-woven cloth. Furnishing fabrics were created to decorate and provide comfort and warmth in the home, and also to serve as space dividers within domestic structures. Despite their similar use of indigo or black and white threads, the blankets achieve strikingly divergent effects based on the contrast of light and dark motifs. The dramatic checkered cloth (kpokpo) reveals a weft-dominant weave accented by tapestry-woven and inlaid colored, triangular, and zigzag designs. The more understated example (kpokpo jawi) incorporates supplementary weft designs and painstakingly embroidered details to render its overall cruciform patterning. Like all of the textiles in this section, the cloths are composed of handspun threads that create subtle textural designs, even among un-dyed threads.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1998; collected in Liberia between 1926-1928.
Hand Held: Personal Arts from Africa

Inscribed: Old masking tape label with number written: L75-16-13.

Culture

Vai

2000–2000

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Culture

Mende

2000–2000

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