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Navajo Pictorial Weaving

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:20,000.00 USD Estimated At:50,000.00 - 70,000.00 USD
Navajo Pictorial Weaving
69 x 55 Horizontal serrated zigzag design and concentric diamonds featuring three rows of horses, all separated by solid bands. Some of the horses have indigo horseshoes and brand details. The ground is raveled red bayeta with homespun natural white and brown, pale vegetal gold and indigo blue designs. Fine condition, c 1875. Horses were first introduced to the Southwest in the 16th century by Spanish Conquistadors. The Navajos used them for transportation, warfare and commerce, and they soon became symbols of wealth and power. This Navajo serape blanket is one of the earliest examples of a 1870s-1880s pictorial Navajo weaving. Navajo pictorial serapes are woven of the finest and rarest materials available to the weaver at the time. There is another blanket possibly woven by the same weaver, but not nearly as fine or in as good condition in the Taylor Museum Collection in Colorado Springs (Navajo Pictorial Weaving by Tyrone Campbell, fig. #8).