"Vallero" type Rio Grande Blanket
NameBlanket
Artist
Artist Not Recorded
Place madeNEW MEXICO, United States, Southwest, North America
MediumWool
Dimensions87 3/8 × 50 in. (222 × 127 cm)
Credit LineMuseum of International Folk Art, gift of the Historical Society of New Mexico, A5.1956.40
Object numberA5.1956.40
DescriptionOf hand-spun wool warps and wefts, commecial dyes, woven in two strips. Design is a large central lozenge covering most of the blannket, composed of multiclored bands with barbed outlines. Colors are red, orange, yellow, pale green, grape-juice purple, light pink, natural light wool. Borders on long sides are 16 cm deep, of chevron-shaped forms overlapping like scales in multicolor combinations. At ends there are plain stripes: (1) white, red, purple, red; (2) other end, same with narrow yellow lines between purple and red stripes. According to Dr. H. P. Mera, "Southwestern Textiles," page 96, the star element in design replaced the "Pseudo Mexican Lozenge"--this example does not include the star--found in A8.56-3). However, these are generally classed by Dr. Mera between 1875-90 (Valleros), while Elmer Shupe places the star-designed ones as made by Patricia Montoya, a disabled woman, during the 1890's. He qualified this statement, adding that, of course, other weavers may have followed her designs also. In a broad view the Valleros may thus be placed between 1875 and 1900, (approximately), when cottom warps began to be introduced.
