Royal Belt (yet) (possibly early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Royal Belt (yet) (possibly early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Attributed to Kuba peoples of southeast Democratic Republic of Congo, this prestige belt boasts superb craftsmanship. The accumulation of a variety of materials indicates the high status of its wearer. It is made from leather strips and finely accessorized with a combination of intricately patterned bead designs, cowries, seashells, and bells. It would have been worn over a large raffia skirt by a man during ceremonial occasions. It was acquired from the Belgian dealer Jacques Hautelet in 1994.

Object facts

• Title: Royal Belt (yet)
• Date: possibly early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba Kingdom, Kuba-style maker
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Plant fiber, rawhide or leather, glass beads, seashells, cowrie shells, cloth, and colorant
• Dimensions: Overall: 139.5 cm (54 15/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1994.87

A detail from the museum

Cowry shells, a type of currency used in the Kuba Kingdom in Central Africa, decorate this belt made for a king. The intricate patterns and colors of the beads indicate the high status of the wearer as well as the wealth of his kingdom.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Young-Sánchez, Margaret. "The Cleveland Museum of Art." African Arts 30, no. 1 (1997): 66-71, repr. p. 66.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions to the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection,” August 26, 1994, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.

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.