Origin:  Diné [Navajo]; Navajo Nation, Southwest USA.

Comments. As noted below, this 80+ year old, hand-woven Navajo saddle blanket has some condition problems, including crookedness.  Even with its ‘faults’, it is an attractive, historic, original, abstract art piece.  It is a great antique Navajo weaving to begin a collection with.  Due to its condition, we significantly reduced the price.  So it’s a bargain for a beginner collector with limited funds.
Saddle blankets were woven to protect a horse’s back from sores created by the saddle rubbing on the horse’s back as the horse moved.  It’s a ‘double’ saddle blanket—meaning it was woven this size so it could be folded in half [“doubled”] to make a thicker pad under the saddle, providing more protection for the horse’s back so the saddle movement would not create sores.  When folded in half under the saddle, the weaving’s complex, dramatic border would have formed an attractive border hanging down below the saddle edges.  
     Historically [before some white traders started ‘pushing’ certain designs], a Diné weaver envisioned her design before ever starting to weave—envisioned it all in her mind…NO designing on paper or replicating a design some trader wanted.  That was true with this Diné ‘grandmother’ who envisioned what is delightful abstract art while serving its important role as a saddle blnaket. She created a dramatic, colorful border with the black outer border overlain by linked, white-bordered, red squares and an inner border of stepped half-diamonds in black and chestnut brown outlined in white. This complex border indicates the weaver really cared about her weaving because it took many more hours of spinning, dyeing and weaving for her to produce this border design. A simple border of 1 color would have taken many fewer hours of challenging work.  Her blanket border design would have had dramatic visual impact when folded double under a saddle because that border would be exposed, hanging down below the saddle edges.
     Her beautiful border is a bold ‘frame’ for the center of her saddle blanket, which itself forms a beautiful abstract art panel.  It’s composed of grey-brown variegated Navajo sheep wool that has natural color variations of the wool from various shades of grey to browns.  Her use of differing shades and patterns of the natural variegated wool reminds me of the differing colors of sedimentary rock layers so characteristic of the Diné landscape.  Her alternating light and dark horizontal lines of the variegated wool also remind me of the shadow effects on the landscape as the light shifts as clouds drift across the awesome western sky!
     Notice that those variegated layers of wool are interrupted by long slanted lines in the weaving—some slanted to the left, some slanted to the right.  Those lines are in fact characteristic of antique Diné weaving.  Here’s a simplified explanation of what they are.  In historic Diné weaving, seldom was a weaving completed in ‘one sitting’ in one time period.  Instead, different sections of weft were woven at different times, and were woven with a slant on the unfinished side of the weft.  When the weaving was resumed to create the next weft section, the Diné weaver used an innovative weaving technique to join the new weft section to the previous weft section.  That technique of joining weft sections resulted in a structurally sound, finished weaving.
            Traders dubbed such lines, “lazy lines”, which is an offensive insult, implying they are there because the weavers were “lazy”. That’s an ABSURD, IDIOTIC, IGNORANT LIE, ...and is RACIST.  So I personally refuse to use that false, offensive term--& I encourage you to refuse to use it.  Instead, use the alternative, fact-based term I coined:  “smart lines”.  “Smart” because they were a structurally sound way of joining woven individual weft sections into an integrated, strong whole.  But also very smart in enabling efficient, effective, superb weaving under historically challenging conditions.  Historic Diné weavings resulted from thousands of hours of hard work just to raise the sheep to produce the wool.  Then the dedicated weaver had to clean [& in some cases, dye], and spin the wool before even beginning the weaving, which itself took hundreds or thousands of hours at the loom.  There’s NO “lazy” in Diné weaving!
So when I view this weaving hanging on a wall vertically, I see abstract outlines of mountains and mesas, formed by the weaver’s purposeful placement of the variegated wool and the ‘smart lines’. I can visualize her sitting at her outdoor upright loom, inspired by the surrounding landscape of her Diné homeland, to recreate it in abstract form in her weaving. Awesome! Was it the weaver’s intention to depict an abstract landscape with outlines of mountains or mesas? I don’t know. But I personally think it’s highly unlikely those figures and patterns could have happened randomly without specific intent & careful weaving by the weaver. Regardless of whether the weaver intended to represent her homeland landscape, the center panel is an awesome abstract geometric art design that I believe was intentional and consistent with this creative weaver’s vision!

Condition.  Professionally cleaned.  NO fade. NO moth damage or moth chemicals. No odors of tobacco smoke, chemicals, mold.  Other condition factors as described below, & sold “as-is”.  This weaving price has been significantly lowered in consideration of its condition described below.
We always want you to be delighted with your purchases of authentic Native American arts from us.  So we call your attention to various condition factors that are common in antique Navajo weavings so if you do purchase them, you do so because their condition does not detract from your enjoyment and appreciation of them.  Few other dealers provide such full disclosure prior to your purchase.
Crooked weaving.  SEE PHOTOS.  Weaving is crooked due to 2 factors: (1) the central variegated grey field was woven slightly crooked in relation to the warp end sides, and (2) slight variation in the width & length: 1 end width is 31.5” & other is 32”; length of 1 side is 48” & the other 48.5”.  Of course that crookedness would not be obvious at all when used for its intended use as a saddle blanket.
However, when used now as wall art, that crookedness can be a detracting feature.  For instance, if hung on a wall vertically, the crookedness is very apparent and detracts from the weaving’s beauty and art appeal.  However, hung horizontally on a wall, the crooked appearance is minimized & the weaving’s beauty dominates.  If used as a decorative ‘throw’ for the back of a sofa/couch, there’s no notice of the crooked weave. 
Restoration.This saddle blanket had some restoration prior to our acquisition of it: (1) cleaned but residual scattered light bleed of the synthetic red dye onto white areas—this bleed probably can NOT be further removed; (2) repairs made to warps & wefts on corners, selvedge, & some reweave of warp & weft on each end of weaving.

Materials.  Navajo hand-spun sheep wool. Warps: 8/inch natural white. Wefts: 20-22/inch natural black, natural white, natural variegated grey-brown, & synthetic-dyed red & chestnut brown. Selvedges: natural black.

Written Authenticity Guarantee.  Diné [Navajo] hand-woven ‘double’ saddle blanket, c. 1920-40; approximately 32” by 48”. All materials are Navajo hand-spun sheep wool, consisting of 8 warps per inch in natural white wool, and 20-22 wefts per inch in natural black, white, natural variegated grey-brown and synthetic-dyed red and chestnut brown. Crooked weaving sold as-is.

Buy without worries. (1) Written authenticity guarantee from 28 yr member of Authentic Tribal Art Dealers Asso [ATADA]. (2) To protect our and YOUR HEALTH, our home & inventory storage are chemical-free, fragrance-free, mold-free. (3) We are Covid-free.