As promised, this week I’ve got pics and comments on the Navajo rug auction Tom and I attended a couple of weeks ago.
The University of New Mexico’s Maxwell Museum of Anthropology sponsored the seventh annual auction on Saturday, November 21, in Bernalillo. Being on Santa Ana tribal land, that meant that anyone purchasing a rug got it tax-free. Always a bonus and an incentive when you’re talking expensive items, handmade or not. Proceeds from sales benefited the museum and the Navajo weavers.
Tom and I got there at 11:00 on the dot that morning, just as the restaurant hosting the event opened to the public. There were two hours for browsing and inspection of rugs before the auction was to start. Museum volunteers were busy hanging rugs on primitive ladders. Seeing that and the piles still on the floor, we were amazed at the sheer volume of rugs offered – approximately 250!
Initially, our plan was to just hang a bit, take photos (to make you drool), and then head home. After about 15 minutes we knew that wasn’t happening. Too many rugs, too much curiosity about how the auction itself was going to work. The people-watching was good too, and there was free food! Despite Tom’s misgivings, I got myself a paddle and registered for the auction. If attendance was low, I figured I might actually manage to pick up a rug to join the one we bought in Arizona years ago. (When we both had good jobs; when Tom wasn’t retired; before I started working for cash-starved non-profits…)
The folks running the auction graciously provided a program that listed all the rugs to be bid on, including the artists. Even better, it was a great primer on Navajo rugs in general: how to buy one; how they’re made; descriptions of the various weave patterns; how to care for the rugs; and auction tips. The auctioneers provided even more information during the auction itself, so Tom and I were able to chalk the whole thing up as an educational experience too.
Interesting factoids:
- Just like rug hooking, weaving takes a LOT of time and work. “It can take up to 140 hours to complete a 30×60 inch saddle blanket, and a 3×5 foot rug can take 238 hours to complete. However, if the weaver had shorn the sheep, washed, carded, spun, and dyed the wool on their own, it is estimated to take an additional 200 hours to complete one rug.” (From Navajo Rug Auction Program.)
- There are nine different weave patterns: plain; diagonal twill; five types of diamond twill; two-faced (a pattern with vertical ribs similar to plain weave, but including stitches of irregular width so that the two sides have different patterns); and double cloth (another type of reversible weave).
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Even bright, unexpected colors. - If you don’t flip your rug regularly, the exposed side will fade. An evenly faded rug can be worth more than one with one “bright” side.
- Unlike a hooked rug, you’re encouraged to vacuum a Navajo rug. If only to reduce the chances of insect infestation. More than moths. Ew.
- One should never drink wine or any other aqueous liquid when you’re anywhere near the rug (as far as I’m concerned). Any rugs woven after 1875, use aniline dyes for red, orange, and other brights, thus they run when wet. I have to admit that this would make me really nervous if I had a party at my house. Or children. Or even dogs. Not that my dog drinks alcohol. At least not out of a glass.
And another. 
Here’s one “tree of life.
Hank, the boisterous auctioneer, started the auction just after 1:00 p.m. As he said, it wasn’t quite like being at a livestock auction, but Tom made for damn sure that I didn’t even scratch my nose – just to assure that I didn’t accidentally bid for a $1200 rug or even a $300 one.
Needless to say, given that the room was full (maybe 300 people), I did NOT go home with a Navajo rug that day. According to Mary Beth Hermans of the Maxwell Museum, “The average price for a 24-by-30-inch rug is about $350. …many of the rugs sell for the opening bid [specified by the auction].” (From an Albuquerque Journal article by Kathaleen Roberts on November 20, 2015.)
While my shopping basket remained empty that day, all was not lost. We learned plenty about Navajo rugs and the auction process. Even better, the woman seated a row ahead of us clued me in to a monthly rug auction going on about two and a half hours west of Albuquerque. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on some reservation. Crownpoint‘s got lower prices, I hear – some sell for less than $50! The auction doesn’t start till 6:00 p.m. on a Friday, so we’ll have to find a place to stay. Not in that town; there’s no lodging there. But that’s why we moved out here to New Mexico. It’ll be yet another adventure.
Anyone out there have experience at a Navajo rug auction? Other auctions? I saw how easily I could’ve lost control. (Not that Tom would’ve let that happen.)
