Customer Reviews

Blanket Weaving in the Southwest

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Every now and again a book is destined to become a classic. This is such a book. To describe this reference book as monumental is not using too strong a word. This is indeed a singular effort to provide scholars, collectors and interested readers with a must-have resource to understanding the origins and intricacies of some sought-after works of art.
For centuries collectors have coveted the hand-woven blankets, sarapes and ponchos of the Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish American artists of the Southwest.
Indeed, the popularity of these objects is increasing, as evidenced by the long line of cars and attendant crowds gathering in the high school auditorium in Crownpoint,N.M., on the third Friday of every month.
Collectors, buyers and speculators meet at the school to examine hundreds of handmade rugs created by native artists. These would-be buyers vie for the sought-after items in a high-speed auction. These monthly sales are testimony to the never-ending popularity of Southwestern textiles.
As for this book, where to begin?
The author became the first curator of anthropology at the University of Colorado Museum in 1953. He remained at that post until his retirement in 1986, and later became interested in the history of Southwestern textile development.
His exhaustive research led him to visit dozens of museums and painstakingly study thousands of 19th century textiles. He supervised chemical tests of dyes from hundreds of yarns and spent years conducting research in both renowned and obscure archives in an effort to document the material and basis for textile development.
His work resulted in a classification scheme for Southwestern textiles that established a baseline for understanding, identifying and dating items of unknown origin. This book is the result of that research and will be the standard by which all future efforts will be judged.
The book contains 115 black and white figures, line drawings that demonstrate weaving techniques, edge finishes and corner tassels as well as 191 gorgeous color plates that enable the reader to visually determine the distinct traits of the three textile traditions of the Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish-American blanket weaving art.
There are chapters dealing with fibers, yarns, dyes, fabric structure, tools, weaves and finishing techniques as well as 97 pages of appendix, chapter notes and an index.
This is a monunmental work that will appeal to scholars, collectors and general readers with an interest in the history of this Southwestern art form.

The Amazon review submitted by Charles M. Nobles is absolutely accurate and covers every element necessary to evaluate your potential interest in this book. This review is simply to emphasize that the 190 color reproductions of the rugs are truly outstanding; these alone make this book worth every penny. The plates are full page, appear to have provide excellent color fidelity and reproduce subtle nuance among the colors.

This book is likely to become collectible for this reason alone; the essays on technique, materials and the history of the region and its weaving traditions make it invaluable for anyone with an interest in the subject.

The book is very well written and researched. I especially appreciated the history of the Native Americans who created the blankets and their interactions with the Spanish.

Joe Ben Wheat's collection of Native American blankets is being exhibited in three separate mini-collections (because of the limited space at the museum) at the University of Colorado's Natural History Museum. Two friends and I attended the first exhibit last week and thoroughly enjoyed it!