Oval Mid-20th Century Handmade American Braided Room Size Carpet

Measures: 9′ 5″ x 12′ 3″

North American has never developed a unified handmade rug tradition, but rather it is the unassimilated confluence of several. From Mexico comes the Saltillo serape wearing blanket, and this stimulates the Navajo and Rio Grande (Colorado) weavers, first as blankets, then as rugs. The thrifty habits of rural America gave rise to the New England (and Western Canadian) hooked rug types, while the farmers of the Midwest recycled their disused garments into braided and rag rugs.
The closest to a real ongoing tradition are the Southwestern (New Mexican) Navajo rugs. By the 1860’s the native tribes were weaving wearing blankets with wool from the Spanish churro sheep. These were in stripe design, with combinations of undyed wool with cochineal reds and indigo blues. The multi-phase “Chief’s Blankets” from the 1870’s-80’s are a natural outgrowth of these. Machine spun red wool from Germantown in Pennsylvania appeared in the 1870’s with a bright red hitherto unobtainable. The weavers loved it and blankets appeared with bright reds, generally aniline, in “eye dazzler” patterns. Anglo traders established posts beginning in the 1890’s. Navajo weavings were perfect accompaniments not only for Western-themed decors, but for East Coast apartments, only they needed to be thicker and more rug like to be truly accepted. The traders brought Caucasian and Turkish village rugs to copy, borders were introduced and central medallions devised. The weavers continued to create on vertical looms, with a shared warp (dovetailing) weft structure to avoid slits. The warps were cotton string. Sizes were generally scatters, but occasionally a special order came in, hence antique room size Navajos are very rare and very pricey. Distinct village/pueblo styles developed. Among the best are: Two Grey Hills (considered the tightest, closest of all Navajo weaving), Crystal Springs and Ganado. Certain new patterns such as the “Storm pattern” with jagged lightning bolts emanating from a dark cloud developed. The Yei rug with dancing Kachina doll figures became popular. The palette has been expanded beyond the classic grey, tan, dark brown and cream natural wool combination to again include reds, blue and greens. Navajo pictorials include: American flags, trains and automobiles, domestic and local scenes and scenery. Individual artist weavers now command gallery shows and correspondingly elevated prices. There are several levels of Navajo work, and antique and vintage scatters with simple flat designs, medium weaves and tritonal palettes, and in good floor worthy condition are still available reasonably.
The Native American weaving tradition extends into Colorado with two piece scatters with sharp sawtooth medallions and striped end borders, with wool tapestry weave on cotton warps. These descend from the Saltillo blankets of Northern Mexico. These tend to be lighter in handle than Navajo rugs and are better suited as wall hangings or throw covers. They have a much smaller collecting crowd than Navajos and real treasures can still be found. Antique large pieces are particularly uncommon, and the surviving tradition seems to date not much before 1900.

New England = thrift. New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces are the home of the hooked scatter rug. Everything was saved and repurposed. Instead of buying new cotton or wool fabric for the backing, feed sacks were opened out, thus restricting the size of the finished pieces. While the Canadian rugs often display sailing ships or other nautical themes, the New England farmers, scratching a livelihood out of the rocky soil, reproduced their household favorites: children, dogs, houses, vases with flowers, medallions, and vinery, as well as sailing ships. Worn out garments were cut into long, narrow strips and a small hooked device was used to pull loops of fabric through the plain-weave, jute or hemp usually, foundation. It looks homey because it is. The heyday of the New England hooked rug is between 1870 and 1920. This thrift also gave rise to the pieced quilt. Again bits of garments and bed linens were assembled to created artistic patterns. Later farm women in Ohio, Indiana and points farther Midwest created hooked rugs. There are a relative few larger, room size hooked carpets, often in repeating patterns, and also narrow runners