A delightful floor rug from the Crystal Trading Post. Woven following the Stock Market crash of 1929, this rug exhibits the wool qualities typical of the 1930-40 time period. The introduction of the French Rambouillet sheep onto the reservation in 1903 marks the beginning of modern efforts to improve the wool 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, One Hundred Years of Navajo Rugs, 1995: 27).

This distinctive rug has an outer border of variegated caramel brown homespun, adjacent to a white border defined by caramel wools on the interior in an oversize serrate pattern. This serrate pattern is further defined with an outline in aniline red and natural brown homespun. The interior is dominated by four powerful Vallero star motifs woven in natural white and brown homespun on the periphery and two red, white, and brown homespun stars in the center over a carded gray field. Excellent condition.

Recommended Reading: Weaving of the Southwest (click here to view details of book) by Marian Rodee, et al. (This book may be available from Adobe Gallery)