HISTORIC NAVAJO TRANSITIONAL WEARING BLANKET, HOURGLASS LIGHTNING DESIGN, C1890

Description

HISTORIC NAVAJO TRANSITIONAL SERAPE BLANKET, HOURGLASS LIGHTNING DESIGN, C1885-1895
Wonderful 19th C Wearing Blanket / Serape with gorgeous handspun wool, especially all the variegated coloration of orange-red and natural brown.  Colors intense and condition excellent.  The hourglass designs, no two alike, dance across the weaving forming 3 diamonds on one end at center
Measures approximately 56” x 75”.  Fresh to the market.
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an effort to assist Buyers with understanding the way I describe the condition of Navajo weavings that I’m selling on ebay, I spoke with Navajo textile author and expert Tyrone Campbell about his ‘Classification Categories for Condition’ that he first published in his NEWSLETTER in 1981.
After discussing with him that we may have to tweak it a bit because it has been 40 years since it was originally comprised and gotten nearly impossible to find weavings in excellent, let alone mint condition these days, I concluded, what the hell, why mess with a good thing.  It’s a standard worth sticking to!  So here it is as originally written (and with permission to reprint from Tyrone, July 2020).
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“CLASSIFICATION
CATEGORIES
FOR DETERMINING PHYSICAL CONDITION
FRAGMENT:           Any portion of an entire weaving.
DETERIORATED:  Heavily damaged, warps exposed, selvage missing, large holes, serious fading or running, corners or areas missing.
AVERAGE:               Shows floor wear or small holes, some selvage damage, very minor bleeding, etc.
GOOD:                      Above average classification may still show use, but not broken warps.  In some cases a very small hole or two or a minor selvage break or two is acceptable.
EXCELLENT:           No holes, no bleeding or fading, no exposed warps or serious selvage damage.
MINT:                        This classification means that the textile is in pristine condition.
NOTE:  In the case of rare weavings we will up-grade the condition classification from Average to Good or from Good to Excellent, but in no case to Mint or from Deteriorated to Average condition.”
From THE TYRONE D. CAMPBELL NEWSLETTER, Published at Albuquerque, N.M., 1981.
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