antique native american rugs for sale

A Navajo Rug made with hand-spun wool will cost you more than one made from mass-produced yarn. Because the wool is thicker and more smooth, you will pay more. Tapestries are rugs with more than 80 threads per inch. A well-made rug will have even edges and a balanced design. The rug will not be uniform as weavers can add imperfections to their work. Prices of Navajo rugs vary depending on their size, age, provenance, and origin. A small rug might cost about $100 while a larger rug, which is more expensive, can run up to $41,600. A large rug can take up to three years to make. It is more expensive to buy antique rugs than modern rugs. As a matter fact, the price of a Navajo rug is likely to rise as its provenance grows.

Generally known as Modern Crystal rugs, these borderless patterns often combine vegetal and aniline colors in shades of brown, yellow, and terra cotta with natural greys and whites. This is accomplished by alternating weft threads of two contrasting colors and tightly “battening” or packing them together, giving the effect of a thin, undulating line. Starting in the 1940s, Sally and William Lippincott, owners of the trading post at Wide Ruins, Arizona worked with the weavers in their area to develop highly detailed banded patterns rendered in vegetal dyes. Most Wide Ruins rugs are characterized by very fine, tightly-spun yarns and a flat, even weave. They feature the full range of new vegetal colors including soft green, mauve, terra cotta, and pale purple, pink and blue as well as the more common yellow, gold, brown, and tan.