adire
- Museum number
- Af1964,02.44
- Description
-
Adire cloth formed of two lengths of European calico cotton, sewn and hemmed by machine. The textile has been indigo-dyed using a stencil and wax or starch resist method. The design uses two stencils: one in the lower centre of a man (a king wearing a crown?) seated on a sort of throne within an alcove; the other, repeated many times, of a large-size horse with its harness which is flanked by four much smaller horses, two on each side. There are also regular lines produced by a perforated grid. The text reads ‘Ohun gbogbo kosehin Oluwa’ (Everything is known to God).
- Production date
- 1900-1940 (between)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 173 centimetres
-
Width: 197 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- This adire cloth is closely linked to the other cloth in the CMS group (Af19634,02.43 qv) and probably comes from the same place and time.
The pattern is reminiscent of the later so-called 'Jubilee' design produced for the Silver Jubilee of George V and Queen Mary in 1935, which has been studied by George Jackson in Doig Simmonds et al (eds). ‘Adire cloth in Nigeria’ 2016, in an article on ‘The devolution of the ‘Jubilee’ design’ (pp.51-62). His study follows the later degradations of the hypothetical original design of 1935 (which he had not seen). These variants often have mottos such as ‘Gbogbo ohun kosehin Oluwa’ = Everything is known to God.
The imagery of this cloth has, however, only one figure in it, and so has nothing to do with the Jubilee. Stylistically and logically it probably predates that type. The text is the variant of the same text ‘Ohun gbogbo kosehin Oluwa’. It is not certain who the seated figure is supposed to be, but the most obvious identification is with the name in the text - Oluwa ('God'). (AVG)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1964
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1964,02.44
