Folk Art North and South American Rugs

The Wavy rug is a series of rugs first exhibited in our pieces homes project in Kennebunk, Maine. The Wavy rug design concept started as a single rug composed...

The Wavy rug is a series of rugs first exhibited in our pieces homes project in Kennebunk, Maine. The Wavy rug design concept started as a single rug composed...

A vintage American rag rug handmade during the mid-20th century. Measures: 3' 6" x 5' 8" North American rugs & carpets: North American has never developed a unified handmade rug tradition, but rather it is the unassimilated confluence of several. From Mexico comes the Saltillo serape wearing blanket, and this stimulates the Navajo and Rio Grande (Colorado) weavers, first as blankets, then as rugs. The thrifty habits of rural America gave rise to the New England (and Western Canadian) hooked rug types, while the farmers of the Midwest recycled their disused garments into braided and rag rugs. The closest to a real ongoing tradition are the Southwestern (New Mexican) Navajo rugs. By the 1860s the native tribes were weaving wearing blankets with wool from the Spanish churro sheep. These were in stripe design, with combinations of undyed wool with cochineal reds and indigo blues. The multi-phase “Chief’s Blankets” from the 1870s-80s are a natural outgrowth of these. Machine spun red wool from Germantown in Pennsylvania appeared in the 1870s with a bright red hitherto unobtainable. The weavers loved it and blankets appeared with bright reds, generally aniline, in “eye dazzler” patterns. Anglo traders established posts beginning in the 1890s. Navajo weavings were perfect accompaniments not only for Western-themed decors, but for East Coast apartments, only they needed to be thicker and more rug like to be truly accepted. The traders brought Caucasian and Turkish village rugs to copy, borders were introduced and central medallions devised. The weavers continued to create on vertical looms, with a shared warp (dovetailing) weft structure to avoid slits. The warps were cotton string. Sizes were generally scatters, but occasionally a special order came in, hence antique room size Navajos are very rare and very pricey. Distinct village/pueblo styles developed. Among the best are: Two Grey Hills (considered the tightest, closest of all Navajo weaving), Crystal Springs, and Ganado. Certain new patterns such as the “Storm pattern” with jagged lightning bolts emanating from a dark cloud developed. The Yei rug with dancing Kachina doll figures became popular. The palette has been expanded beyond the classic grey, tan, dark brown, and cream natural wool combination to again include reds, blues, and greens. Navajo pictorials include American flags, trains, and automobiles, domestic and local scenes and scenery. Individual artist weavers now command gallery shows and correspondingly elevated prices. There are several levels of Navajo work, and antique and vintage scatters with simple flat designs, medium weaves, and tritonal palettes, and in good floor worthy condition are still available reasonably. The Native American weaving tradition extends into Colorado with two-piece scatters with sharp sawtooth medallions and striped end borders, with wool tapestry weave on cotton warps. These descend from the Saltillo blankets...

78310 Vintage Folk Art Ecuadorian tapestry with olga Fisch style, 01'11 x 02'09

Modern style woven leather strap rug or carpet made from twelve panels sewn together. The panels are joined with leather cowhide strapping. Two sided with one side having a smoother ...

A vintage American folk rag rug in accent rug format handmade during the mid-20th century. Measures: 5' 10" x 8' 7".

Henley tufted wool carpet, two-tone sage green, label on reverse marked "Pottery Barn." Dealer: S138XX

A striking early 20th century Navajo blanket with a bold all-over diamond pattern woven in crimson, white, gray, and black wool.

Hooked and shirred hearth rug, New England, circa 1850s in wool, cotton and linen. This dramatic folk art piece is in excellent condition. Depicting a recu...

Ecuadorian carpet designed by Olga Fisch 13'4" x 11'0" Of Hungarian origin, Olga Fisch (1901-1991) emigrated in 1933, first to Morocco and in 1939 to Ecuador, ahead of the political instability wracking Europe. Already an artist and collector of folk art, Fisch quickly took to the local arts and crafts available in the Quito markets. Folk and Paleolithic cave art and established a workshop creating knotted pile carpets to her individualistic and unique designs. The firm continues today, as does the museum of (primarily) Ecuadorian folk art. Only domestic sheep wool is employed and the rugs are firmly symmetrically (Turkish) knotted on a cotton foundation at a density of 60,000 knots per square meter or about 40 knots per square inch. is a rare oval creation with the “Cabalito” pattern inspired by the folk embroidery on the “danzantes’ participants in the Corpus Christi processions from Cotopaxi, Ecuador. A number of these costumes are in the Olga Fisch Folk Art Museum in Quito. The pattern densely fills the ivory field with mobile figures, horses and vegetal motives. It is reminiscent of certain Greek Island women’s costume embroideries. Often the “Cabalito” pattern occupies an oval or lobed section on an otherwise plain rectangular carpet, but here is the pattern takes up almost all of the oval, with its energetic filigree of figures, fauna and flora. Olga Fisch carpets are as 1950s modern as they get and our examples cry out for the right Danish or Swedish modern furniture as their perfect accompaniments. Some Italian Murano glass table objects won’t hurt either. A Neutra or Schindler house in the Los Angeles hills is definitely the perfect context, but any midcentury ranch...

A striking early 20th century Native North American Navajo Rug with a bold geometric diamond pattern woven in crimson and white wool against a gray background, and with a fantastic b...

Stunning vintage Ecuadorian rug by Olga Fisch, origin: Ecuador, circa mid-20th century. Size: 6 ft 10 in x 10 ft 4 in (2.08 m x 3.15 m) Olga Fisch was an inspired artist of the mid-...