Display Cloth (ndop)

Unknown

mid-20th century · Cotton, dye · Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

The mountainous Grassfields region of Cameroon is home to highly stratified chiefdoms, which are bound together by a history of cultural contact and shared political structures. Ndop royal display cloths were, and are still, among the favorite exchange gifts among the Grassfields' leaders. At state occasions, numerous tapestries were draped as backdrops for the royal setting. Such cloths became prestige objects no ruler could afford to be without. Ndop cloths are a key visual focus of royal displays of power and wealth in the Cameroon's Grassfields region. This example features a classic range of the symbolic iconography distinctive of the Cameroon Grassfields region's patterning on such indigo-dyed cloths.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-20th century

Medium

Cotton, dye

Culture

Grassfields region

Department

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Credit line

Gift of Ann and Richard Solomon, 2019