shirt;
adire;
textile
- Museum number
- Af1934,0307.297
- Description
-
Boy’s shirt (adire), made up from three pieces of imported European machine white calico cotton, indigo-dyed in Africa with a design drawn by hand in starch resist and then dyed in a single shade of indigo. The cotton was decorated with a repeated pattern of knots and flowers. One piece was cut to form the body with a circular hole cut for the head, and two pieces were cut to form the short sleeves; the whole was machine-sewn together. The neck of the garment has been lined with a piece of European printed cloth with an ikat design in maroon, black and white, and machine stitched with ornamental circles in white cotton; a small area at the bottom of the shirt has been lined with a white and blue European brocaded cotton.
- Production date
- 1909
- Dimensions
-
Length: 54 centimetres
-
Width: 110 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The label written by C.A.Beving survives, and reads: "Obtained 1909. Boy's garment hole for head, and sleeves made from a native print. Head hole lined with a piece of cheap European print and ornamentally stitched. The print made by covering a piece of European calico with a resist of wax.... and then dyed an <...> shade of indigo. Where the cloth is covered with the resist the indigo ....One corner of the garment is lined with a piece of European brocaded cotton."
This is one of the group of 83 cloths dyed with designs in indigo in the Beving collection (Af1934,0307.221 to 303). For comment see Af1934,0307.221. Within this larger group, this is one of eight Nigerian adire cloths (Af1934,0307.290 to 297). The acquisition register records that all of them were stated by C.A.Beving to have come from Lokoja in Nigeria, the town on the junction of the Niger and the Benue. The label of the last of them is preserved and is annotated ‘obtained 1909’. This date almost certainly applies to the entire group. For further comment see Af1934,0307.290.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1934
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1934,0307.297
