Navajo Blanket

 "Purchased by Mrs. Stevenson in 1873, from a Ute Chief. 12/1965 returned. Worn from years of being on the floor of the Director's office. Will be vacuumed and fumigated before storage. Illus.: Hndbk. of N. Amer. Indians, Vol. 10, Southwest, Fig. 9, pg. 721." Information from "Textiles of the American Southwest" webpage entry on this artifact: Blanket, Navajo. Purchased from an unnamed Ute chief by Matilda Coxe Stevenson, probably in Colorado in 1873. Dimensions: 78 in. (warp); 54 in. (weft). Technique: Plain tapestry weave with a few, carefully concealed lazy lines. Thread count: Warp = 8/in; Weft = 42/in. (handspun yarn) and 48/in. (4-ply commercial yarn). Fibers: Warp = 1-ply handspun wool yarn, natural white, Z-spin. Weft = 1-ply handspun wool yarn, natural cream and dark brown, vegetal-dyed yellow-green and and dark blue (indigo), Z-spin; 4-ply raveled commerical wool yarn, synthetic-dyed (?) scarlet, S-spin, Z-twist; and 4-ply commercial wool yarn, synthetic-dyed scarlet, green, and gold, Z-spin, S-twist. Selvage = end and edge selvages are respun commercial wool (flannel) yarn, synthetic-dyed (?) pinkish crimson, Z-spin, S-twist. The yarn in the end selvages is 2-ply, that in the edge selvages 3-ply. Design: "Moki" pattern sarape with a very narrow, alternating blue and brown stripe background. A row of concentric diamonds in solid and broken striped terraced lines extends across the center. To either side, a web of open, terraced diamonds is developed, framing polychrome lightning, cross, and terraced diamond designs. Illus. and described/analyzed Pl. 157, p. 306 in Wheat, Joe Ben, and Ann Lane Hedlund. 2003. Blanket weaving in the Southwest. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Identified there as a Navajo Sarape. There is an entry on this artifact in The Joe Ben Wheat Southwest Textile Database, Arizona State Museum, The University of Arizona, www.statemuseum.arizona.edu. Direct link to entry: http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/coll/textile/jbw_southwest_textile_database/textiles/analysis/116 .