apron

Beaded apron (Garoua). At both ends, there two pieces of thick, twisted string, which have been knotted together half way down. At the end of the string is another knot, then three big white beads, which have been threaded onto the string. The string separates once more into three after this and these strings are threaded through red and blue beads. The string is secured to the garment with the use of yellow beads and blue knots. This string, at either end of the garment, secures the apron to the wearer. The main piece of the apron is formed from lots of tiny multicoloured beads threaded together. The general pattern of these beads takes the form of black panels, with multi coloured diamonds and white zig zags. The panels are separated by a block of beads of the same colour (orange, blue, yellow, red and green). The lines of thread that keep the beads in place can be seen on the reverse of the apron. In the middle of the apron is a panel of very small beads, threaded together to form multi-coloured diamonds. This panel is secured to the apron with stitches. At the bottom of the panel are white shells, secured with thread.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk