Do you own an ‘Allina Ndebele’ tapestry?

ART historian Philippa Hobbs is assisting famous weaver Allina Ndebele to trace and document the whereabouts of her tapestries made between 1962 and 2005.

Allina started producing them at Rorke’s Drift after 1978 when she started to work as a career artist.

While the tapestries in public collections are known, many of those in many private collections have become obscure.

A large number of these works were sold to private buyers through the old Vukani Association in eShowe and to collectors in the Zululand area.

Others have left South Africa with overseas buyers.

The gifted artist is now unable to work as she is disabled by arthritis, and Hobbs, a PhD candidate, is immortalising her work by listing every tapestry, its story and its owner.

If you are the proud owner of one of these outstanding works, having the tapestry listed will increase its value for future re-sale.

You can contact Philippa Hobbs on hobbs_p@mtn.co.za giving the title and story of your tapestry, or at least a description, so that it can be identified.