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Beaded skirts with a cloth support were produced in the latter part
of the nineteenth century when traders started selling fabric to
African communities in south-east Africa and, over time, such fabrics
have mostly replaced the traditional structural supports of grass and
indigenous fibres. The beads sewn onto this skirt are larger than
those usually used by North Nguni bead-workers, and the restrained
combination of pink and white beads is also relatively unusual for
this type of beadwork. This may indicate that it originated from an
area between the Colony of Natal and the Eastern Cape although any
such suggestion is invariably conjecture.
For two other beaded cloth skirts, see M Stevenson and M Graham- Stewart, South-east African beadwork, Cape Town, 2000, pp.114–5, nos.120–121. For more information on the book, click here. For further pieces of south-east African beadwork in stock, click here. |
