Hat (laket mishiing) with a pin (early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Hat (laket mishiing) with a pin (early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Titled Kuba men and prominent women wear the laket, a small ornate dome-shaped hat. An essential fashion item of adult men in good social standing, it focuses special attention on the head as a significant marker of individual identity, ethnic affiliation, status, and role in society. This prestige object is secured on the crown of the head with a nine-and-a-half-inch metal pin that pierces through the hat onto a clump of hair. The laket is made from undyed raffia palm fiber that was then coiled into threads and woven. There are two examples of the laket: the plain type with the flat top, and the more elaborate type called the laket mishiing.

Object facts

• Title: Hat (laket mishiing) with a pin
• Date: early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba-style maker
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Raffia, metal, and dye
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.8 x 16.8 cm (4 1/4 x 6 5/8 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1915.466

Collection credit

Educational Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019
• Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.