Crystal Trading Post circa 1940s Navajo Rug [SOLD]

This is a typical floor rug from the Crystal Trading Post (area of the Navajo Nation).  Woven following the Stock Market crash of 1929, this rug exhibits the wool qualities typical of the 1930-40 time periods. The introduction of French Rambouillet sheep onto the reservation in 1903 marks the beginning of modern efforts to improve the quality of the Navajo sheep. These initial Rambouillet became firmly entrenched in the breeding population by 1920, with a marked change in wool quality. No longer was the wool the long, hair-like fiber of the Churro, or the inbred kempy wools of the late Churro-Merino crossbreeds, but instead took on a distinctive knobby or curly texture.   Rodee

This distinctive textile has an outer border of undyed black homespun wool, adjacent to a white border on the interior in a serrate pattern. A narrow black band separates the white wool of the border from the gray wool of the prime field.   The interior center is dominated by three powerful Vallejo star motifs woven in natural white and black homespun wool on the carded gray field.

Running parallel to the Vallejo pattern and flanking it on both sides are three stepped black bands enclosing white stepped elements, each of which enclose a diamond design.

The gray field is all undyed homespun yarn reflecting a mixture of white, gray and brown wool carded to provide a variegated field which enhances the appearance.  When a rug is woven from all natural wool carded from various lots of spun yarns, there are variations in shades of color that are testimony to the lack of artificial dyes.

Condition: very good condition with some loss of edge cords, slightly soiled

Provenance: from a resident of Albuquerque

Reference:  One Hundred Years of Navajo Rugs, 1995 by Marian Rodee