adire
- Museum number
- Af1971,35.15
- Description
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Adire cloth: woman's: composed of two even lengths of machine plain woven European cotton machine sewn together. The textile is decorated using the starch resist method. The producer has applied the starch by hand before dyeing the textile indigo. The textile is called IBADAN DUN or 'Ibadan is sweet'. The textile is decorated in 21 different patterns:
Row 1, square 2 (from left): Umbrella and cassava leaves
Row 2, square 1: the pillars of Mapo Hall
Row 2, square 2: guinea fowl
Row 4, square 2: ostrich
Other patterns which can be identified (and all its patterns are in fact representational) are:
Row 2, square 3: Koran board and forks
Row 4, square 3: Ifa divination board with two hedgehogs
The hems are machine sewn and signed by the maker.
- Dimensions
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Length: 197 centimetres
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Width: 173 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Part of the collection made by Jane Barbour of Adire, indigo resist-dyed cloths, made by the Yoruba in Nigeria (see Af1971,35.1).
Ibadan Dun, ‘Ibadan is sweet (pleasant)’. Purchased in Oje market, Ibadan, July 1971. There is a great variety of patterns in cloths of this name, and the only patterns that they all seem to contain are:
Row 1, square 2 (from left), Umbrella and cassava leaves
Row 2, square 1, the pillars of Mapo Hall (this is Ibadan’s town hall on a hill in the centre of Ibadan) alternating with spoons – this, of course, is the design which gives the cloth its name
Row 2 square 2, guinea fowl
Row 4, square 2, ostrich
Other patterns which can be identified (and all the patterns are, in fact, representational) are:
Row 2, square 3, Koran board and forks
Row 4, square 3, Ifa divination tray with two hedgehogs.
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Caption from Picton & Mack 1989, p.155:
'Adire cloth, Yoruba, Nigeria. Painted freehand with starch before dyeing in order to resist the dye. This combination of designs is called Ibadandun, 'Ibadan is a happy place.' This pillars of Ibadan town hall, alternating with spoons, can be seen at the bottom right, second square up. The cloth is prepared in two identical halves which are then sewn together.'
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1971
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased by the vendor in July 1971.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1971,35.15
