Navajo Rug of Teec Nos Pos Origin [SOLD]

Navajo rugs from the Teec Nos Pos area of the reservation are considered the most beautiful designed rugs of all and, at the same time, considered the least Navajo of all.  The designs have been influenced by early traders at the trading post providing designs of Persian rugs to the weavers and, in one instance, painting such designs on the exterior walls of the trading post in the hopes that the weavers would copy those designs.

Teec Nos Pos (circle of cottonwoods) Trading Post was established in 1905 by Hambleton (Hamp) Bridger Noel, the first white man who was able to win the approval of the local Navajo to set up a trading post on their land.  Ten years earlier, two potential traders were driven off.  Hamp Noel married Eva Foutz in 1911 and eventually the Foutz family took over the post and still operate it today. 

Teec Nos Pos rugs generally have large geometric figures, often with hooked or fretted appendages arranged on a central rectangular plane and surrounded by wide, patterned borders.  Before the 1940s, almost all the wool used for warp and weft was handspun and hand dyed.  After World War II, the weavers would use a commercial 4-ply wool and then 3-ply Germantown wool in small amounts as filler elements.  The trading post stocked these commercial yarns in vibrant colors desired by the weavers.

This Navajo textile follows the traditions of Teec Nos Pos in design and use of many colors.  The center field is comprised of a grey background surrounding a white center, both fields filled with design elements.  The wide border is black with a multi-color X design.

“Regarded as aberrant to the mainstream of Navajo designed development by scholars and collectors through the first several decades of this (past) century, all Teec Nos Pos rugs, since the early 1980s, have surpassed even the famous Two Grey Hills in both price and demand, and are the most popular of the regional rugs.” Tyrone Campbell

“According to Gilbert Maxwell, the Teec Nos Pos rugs reserve their greatest appeal for the serious collector and could be the classic weaving of the 20^th century.”  Gilbert Maxwell

Condition: excellent condition

References and Recommended Reading:

            Campbell, Tyrone D. The Teec Nos Pos Regional Rug, 1905-1945, 1990

            Maxwell, Gilbert. Navajo Rugs, Past, Present and Future, 1963

Provenance: from the collection of a Santa Fe resident