Factory printed cloth

Factory print cloth may be manufactured in Europe or Asia for the African market or be made in an African factory and sold anywhere. Generally identified with bright colors and bold designs, it assumes a local name and symbolic meaning. One reason for success of factory printed cloth is the widespread practice of dressing alike for special events ~ weddings, funerals, anniversaries and especially for political events. Another is the quantity of cloth needed to make an outfit. Factory printed cloth is typically sold in 6 yard lots to women for a skirt and top, plus a shawl or head tie. It may be kept uncut as stored wealth.

The 1920s -30s saw the introduction of Fancy cloth, large plain blocks of color with photographic imagery. Popular during colonial times, this technique became particularly important with independence.

Factory printed cloth with a repeating pattern of rectangular scenes of a tree, a beach with palm trees, and a Bullom boat on a purple textured grid background. Rectangles that read "Congratulations Sierra Leone" and "Sierra Leone Independence 1961" are scattered between the scenes. The print is purple dye on a white background. Repeat is 61 cm (24 in.).

Unknown designer, unknown factory, Sierra Leone; purchased by unknown vendor, Sierra Leone, by 1961; sold at a market in Sierra Leone to Lilburne Theurer Senn (born 1930) and Donald A. Theurer (1927-1996), Signal Hill, Sierra Leone, 1961 [1]; by descent to Lilburne Theurer Senn, Clemson, S.C., 1996; donated to the National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., 2002.

[1] Donald Theurer worked for Ford Motor Company in Sierra Leone, while Lilburne Theurer operated a hostel travelers and tourists (in Freetown, 1956-1959 and in Signal Hill, 1959-1962)

"Festival of African American Literature and the Arts, " the Brooks Center, Clemson University, South Carolina, 9/17- 9/21/2001

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