Vai and Mende
Blanket/Furnishing Cloth (Kpokpo)
Vai or Mende, 1900-1927
Scroll
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.
