Truly exceptional Ewe chief’s cloth with complex and varied supplementary weft float decoration throughout. Motifs include ceremonial multi-bladed swords, animals, birds, hands, people, fish, weaver’s pulleys, etcetera. Interesting use of colour – just two colours are used for the float motifs – yellow and white, three for the background weave – yellow, red and blue, and five for the weft faced bands – yellow, red, blue, white and green. Cloths with this level of decoration were extremely expensive to commission and would only have been worn by the wealthiest men. Today we very rarely find cloths of this quality, and this is among the finest we have collected in many years. Dates from circa 1900-30s. Condition: No patches or repairs. There is a slightly discoloured area visible five strips down from the upper left corner in the photo. One of the original 24 strips has been removed – this would have been retained in the family of the original owner as a continued memento of the deceased ancestor when they decided to sell this cloth. Size: 111 ins x 74, 282cm x 188.
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