A Vallero star Rio Grande textile

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Source John Moran Auctioneers

Description: A Vallero star Rio Grande textile Fourth-Quarter 19th Century New Mexico Woven in yellow, red, orange, cream, pink, light blue, and black with a central diamond with radiating chevrons and Vallero stars to corners and seamed to center 85.5" H x 49" W Literature: An image of a similar blanket appears in: Nora Fisher, "Vallero Blankets," in "Rio Grande Textiles," ed. Nora Fisher (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1994), 101, plate 82 Notes: "Brilliantly colored, flamboyant and characterized by eight-pointed stars, the Vallero blanket has been described as the "last fling of native weaving." The Vallero-style Rio Grande blanket is named for the small village of El Valle, located in a small canyon east of Trampas, New Mexico. While El Valle locals credit Patricia Montoya, a weaver working in the 1890s, with the introduction of the eight-pointed star as a motif, it seems that the Vallero stars had in fact appeared many years earlier. In addition to pre-1890 examples featuring indigo and cochineal dyes as well as some with early three-ply yarns, Valleros are found in such large numbers that it is unlikely one woman is responsible for weaving all of them. Most Valleros are made of two widths with a seam down the center, are highly colorful and feature strong vertical emphasis in the side borders, as well as the ubiquitous eight-pointed stars. Some have hand spun warps and wefts, and some are made with commercial yarns. The Vallero form and its many variants rapidly spread and became extremely popular. Some later designs, highly stylized and laid out in a grid pattern, strongly resemble quilt squares. Valleros diminished in influence around 1900, with the increased popularity of more pictorial designs as well as of the Chimayo-style blankets. Not entirely forgotten, the influence of the Vallero style can still be seen in examples from the 20th Century onwards. "Indeed, it is one of the few traditional forms of the Rio Grande blanket to have been retained by the commercial-scale Chimayo-style Spanish weavers. For this reason, the Vallero style might be considered transitional between the earlier Rio Grande style and the twentieth-century Chimayo style." From: Nora Fisher, "Vallero Blankets," in "Rio Grande Textiles," ed. Nora Fisher (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1994), 97-103Notes: "Brilliantly colored, flamboyant and characterized by eight-pointed stars, the Vallero blanket has been described as the "last fling of native weaving." The Vallero-style Rio Grande blanket is named for the small village of El Valle, located in a small canyon east of Trampas, New Mexico. While El Valle locals credit Patricia Montoya, a weaver working in the 1890s, with the introduction of the eight-pointed star as a motif, it seems that the Vallero stars had in fact appeared many years earlier. In addition to pre-1890 examples featuring indigo and cochineal dyes as well as some with early three-ply yarns, Valleros are found in such large numbers that it is unlikely one woman is responsible for weaving all of them. Most Valleros are made of two widths with a seam down the center, are highly colorful and feature strong vertical emphasis in the side borders, as well as the ubiquitous eight-pointed stars. Some have hand spun warps and wefts, and some are made with commercial yarns. The Vallero form and its many variants rapidly spread and became extremely popular. Some later designs, highly stylized and laid out in a grid pattern, strongly resemble quilt squares. Valleros diminished in influence around 1900, with the increased popularity of more pictorial designs as well as of the Chimayo-style blankets. Not entirely forgotten, the influence of the Vallero style can still be seen in examples from the 20th Century onwards. "Indeed, it is one of the few traditional forms of the Rio Grande blanket to have been retained by the commercial-scale Chimayo-style Spanish weavers. For this reason, the Vallero style might be considered transitional between the earlier Rio Grande style and the twentieth-century Chimayo style." From: ... read more

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