Description: This Navajo woven wool "Chief's blanket" (named after a classic horizontal banded pattern that pre-dates the "Germantown Eyedazzler," as well as pictoral scene Navajo rugs) was primarily used for wearing. It features a red aniline dye background with various thin lines of orange aniline dye and naturally dyed brown and white. Five large diamonds (in brown and white, with small designs inside of them) dominate the center of the blanket, while three brown triangles can be seen across the top and bottom of the blanket. This pattern is repeated on both sides of the blanket. This Chief's blanket represents a transitional period in Navajo weaving, when the more "traditional" horizontal banded blankets were being influenced by the Germantown Eyedazzler diamonds and zigzags. However, because this blanket features both horizontal lines and diamonds in fairly equal amounts, the weaving represents either a Third Phase (1860s-1880s) or Fourth Phase (1870s-1900s) Chief's blanket. These phases were the end of the Chief's blankets. AP2018
Subjects: Wool Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1977.33.11 |