A footnote on “Sierra Leone Country Cloths” –the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, 1924.

Country cloths were the main feature of the Sierra Leone pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley in 1924, as the above image (vintage postcard, author’s collection, click to enlarge) shows. The exhibition was also marked by the publication of the booklet Sierra Leone Country Cloths by Dr. M.C.F . Easmon, the earliest and rarest publication devoted to an aspect West African textiles. There is apparently an earlier version that was published in Freetown in 1914 but I have not been able to track that down.

Above is my much prized copy, and below one of the small number of photographs within. This little book is still pretty much the best source on the topic and contributed much information to the later book by the Lambs – Sierra Leone Weaving Venice and Alastair Lamb (Roxford, 1984.)

From the booklet Sierra Leone Country Cloths by Dr. M.C.F . Easmon.