Context (Related Documents)
Black and white photograph attached to rear of catalogue card

Event Date 1988
Author: rachel hand

Context (Field collection)
Collected during fieldwork in the 1980s by Dr Goody Esther, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge

Event Date 1988
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Whirl comprised of long stick with decorated ball shaped weight at the end used for spinning wool/cotton. Weight decorated with red, yellow, and white stripes with white dashes. Basic colour black; Good; Whole
Event Date 8/6/1988
Author: maa

Context (Display)
Exhibited in Talking Textiles, a display in the Maudslay Gallery to celebrate the year of Africa 2005 and curated by the Textile Project team.
Captioned: 'Tools for textiles. This case contains examples of the type of equipment used to make the kente cloths shown in the tall case behind you. These tools and materials were collected during fieldwork in the 1980s by Dr. Esther Goody, an anthropologist at the University of Cambridge Department of Social Anthropology. They come from Gonja, a region of Ghana.

Three spindles D 1988.357, D 1988.358, D 1988.369
The third stage in preparing the cotton is spinning the fibre into thread. The spinner holds the cotton fibres in one hand, then uses a spindle to spin the thread with her other hand. Each of these spindles is made from a painted clay ball attached to a stick. The one at the top has spun cotton thread wound around it.'


Event Date 2005
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
A whirl. Consisting of a thin stick, cylindrical in shape with each end tapering to a point, fitted just above one end is a clay biconical weight. The clay ball is decorated with a red, yellow and white striped pattern at the centre on a black background. The wooden end near the weight has broken away. Used in textile production to spin wool or cotton.
Event Date 8/9/2021
Author: Annie Tomkins