Timeless Textiles: Traditional Pueblo Arts 1840-1940 (SOLD)

From the Back Cover:

Woven cotton textiles have been a part of Pueblo cultural life for more than 2,000 years. When the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, they encountered extensive fields of cotton and abundant textiles among the Pueblo villages. In the 1580s, Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo was presented with six hundred pieces of plain and decorated fabric, along with other small articles of clothing. Spanish documents reveal that Pueblo fabrics were highly valued and traded extensively over great distances from California to the Mississippi River Valley.

By the time Western observers began recording information about the Pueblos in the late nineteenth century, European-introduced wool had largely replaced cotton, and bolts of cloth were becoming readily available though traders. As a result, Pueblo weaving went into a sharp decline. Magnificent textiles are still produced among the Pueblo people today. Most are made either for use in dances or ceremonies or for sale to collectors. This exhibition catalog provides a glimpse of some fine examples of the textile arts as they were practiced prior to World War II.