(AFRICA SURINAME) RAIN FOREST MAROONS Saramaka mens quilted

Sale 2271 - Lot 98

Price Realized: $ 1,080

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(AFRICA--SURINAME.) RAIN FOREST MAROONS. Saramaka men's quilted shoulder cape made by the descendants of runaway slaves. 72x46 inches, geometrical cotton fabric, with quilting; some very light wear. Suriname rain forest, circa 1920's

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a rare man's "shoulder cape" from the saramaka maroons of the suriname rain forrest. In the second half of the 19th century, when the increased migration of Saramaka Maroon men to the Atlantic coast of Suriname had made cloth more widely available in Maroon villages, men and women began to experiment with the artistic possibilities of trade cotton. One popular style of decorative sewing that developed at the end of the century was the practice of cutting and joining pieces of cloth to create intricate patchwork quilt compositions, very much like the technique of the Kuba (Congolese) skirts with their quilted designs. Saramaka women called this technique pisipisi (bits and pieces sewing) and used it to make capes for their husbands to wear across one shoulder. The basic elements were small, square, triangular, and rectangular pieces of cloth in a variety of colors. See Sally and Richard Price "Afro-American Arts of the Suriname Rain Forrest," pages 64-79 (University of California Press, 1980).